Lance's mirror site : The Radio mirror of Davos Newbies
Updated: 01/02/2002; 16:31:46.

 

 
 

24 January 2002

What's missing

In addition to "Why we love New York" (see below), there are a number of other points that seem to be missing from the programme. I had lunch today with a Davos regular who I consider a particularly acute judge of key issues. He felt there had been a conscious decision to keep truly difficult, uncomfortable issues off the programme. His plan is to go to workshops and say, "I'm not sure about the questions posed for us. What do you think of this?" A good idea, I think.

Two broad categories are missing for me. First are topics that are hard to categorise. The programme this year has been grouped under six grand themes. But it remains my conviction that the most interesting ideas fall between the cracks of categorisation. Anything that doesn't have a comfortable pigeonhole has been deleted this year. The second missing category is a session without agenda. Particularly in the difficult times we face today, I'd like an opportunity to sit with a couple of dozen good people and just hear what's on their minds. There have, on occasion, been such voyages of discovery in Davos. I hope one will pop up in New York.


6:35:51 PM    

Topics for discussion

Phil Wolff has suggested a few Davos in New York topics. Some of them, such as the digital and communications divide (most of the world doesn't have access to a telephone), have been Davos constants for a number of years. But two I liked in particular: the tension between fighting terrorism and civil liberties, and what participants love about New York.

The tension between civil liberties and public safety will be a workshop on Friday afternoon in New York. Sadly, the New York discussion doesn't make it to the programme. Phil's own list would be a pretty good start.


6:27:43 PM    

Communication

Bill Seitz has asked me to clarify my item yesterday about the Forum encouraging participants to write editorials. My interpretation was that we were to contact the media folk, and get them to accept pieces – timed, presumably, to coincide with the Annual Meeting – on relevant themes. I don't think I can share the list of Media Fellows without violating confidentiality, but the only one on the list that I know blogs is the stalwart Dan Gillmor.


6:20:47 PM    

Davos attack

I've just been pointed to an online novel about an attack on Davos, during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Daniel de Roulet's Davos: Everyone is Coming Down posits an attack on the communications infrastructure during the Annual Meeting, creating a degree of chaos. It may just be the translation, but I don't think de Roulet's work will win any literary prizes.


2:59:30 PM    


© Copyright 2002 Lance Knobel.



 


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