I have a similar problem with the 30 young scholars from 13 countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Korea, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan ROC, Thailand) taking part in the tutorials. This is a bright bunch. Unlike in other years, it’s a not a fully subsidized training: they or their organizations are picking up a small part of the costs. Perhaps it is that commitment that I am picking up. The slides are being posted on www.cprsouth.org.

Our objectives and those of Wikipedia are not the same. Still, it may be interesting to see if there is anything to be learned from the Wikimania debate.

Some critics of Wikipedia believe that the whole Western tradition of footnotes and sourced articles needs to be rethought if Wikipedia is going to continue to gather converts beyond its current borders. And that, in turn, invites an entirely new debate about what constitutes knowledge in different parts of the world and how a Western institution like Wikipedia can capitalize on it.

But what works for the most developed societies, he said, won’t necessarily work for others. “Lots of knowledge is not Googleable,” he said, “and is not in a digital form.”

Mr. Lih said that he could see the Wikipedia project suddenly becoming energized by the process of documenting cultural practices around the world, or down the street.

Perhaps Mr. Prabhala’s most challenging argument is that by being text-focused, and being locked into the Encyclopedia Britannica model, Wikipedia risks being behind the times.

For the Sevilla meeting, in addition to CPRsouth (represented by Rohan Samarajiva), ACORN-Redecom (represented by Raul Katz) and the inchoate CPR africa (represented by Alison Gillwald) were invited separately, signifying rapid growth in the South in the past few months. Of course, both Alison and a representative of DIRSI, which is a key constituent of ACORN-Redecom, were present in Beijing as well.

Each of the representatives shared their views on how they set about their missions. More important than the formal discussion were the preceding substantive presentations made by those from outside Europe, which highlighted the value of cross-fertilization of ideas. Each agreed that it would be a good idea to keep the cross-fertilization going and committed to come up with workable plans on how to operationalize it.

Themed ‘Speaking Truth to Power’, the conference aims to provide a forum for senior, junior and mid-career scholars to meet face-to-face and exchange ideas, establish networking opportunities and improve the quality of their scholarly work, in order to facilitate the long-term objective of fostering the next generation of active scholars and in-situ experts capable of contributing to ICT policy and regulatory reform in the region.

Please check the Call for Abstracts and Call for Young Scholar Applications to see how you may participate at this event.

Visit the CPRsouth4 conference page for more information. Please mail info[at]cprsouth[dot]org for any queries.

The conference aims to provide a forum for senior, junior and mid-career scholars to meet face-to-face and exchange ideas, establish networking opportunities and improve the quality of their scholarly work, in order to facilitate the long-term objective of fostering the next generation of active scholars and in-situ experts capable of contributing to ICT policy and regulatory reform in the region.

To see how you may participate in this event and join an emerging community of scholars committed to improving the lives of people in Asia through information and communication technology, visit the CPRsouth 3 conference page .

Please note that the deadline for Young Scholar Applications has been extended to Friday, June 6, 2008.