Con Brio

There Was an Echo;)

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

Child Protection Online - second press release, IGF 2007

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

PRESS RELEASE

13^th November 2007
For immediate release

CHILD PROTECTION ORGANISATIONS CALL FOR GREATER DIALOGUE WITH FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ADVOCATES AT IGF TO ESTABLISH COLLABORATIVE ACTION ON CHILD PROTECTION.

Following on from the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon statement of the importance of protecting children online at the inaugural session of the second IGF in Rio, [i] members of child protection organisations present have been active in contributing to the sessions of the Forum, demonstrating a range of ways in which various stakeholders can take practical steps to better protect children under the issue of internet governance.

Today, at the IGF workshops on protecting children against sexual exploitation through ICTs children’s organizations regretted that so few industry representatives and freedom of expression advocates were present. One representative from the industry underscored the need for face to face open dialogue around the regulatory measures being undertaken and proposed for child protection and the imperative to protect freedom of expression.

The workshops highlighted the work of NGOs and their collaboration with industry and government concerning online child safety. Increasingly NGOs are working with industry to develop self-regulatory frameworks which respond to public concerns regarding the risks and harms experienced by children in the online environment. However such initiatives appear to be limited to a few developed countries and only a small number of industry stakeholders. This signals that the value of such partnerships in shaping policies and programmes has yet to be recognized if the global challenge to end the exploitation of children through information and communication technologies is to be met.

David Butt, an ECPAT Board member and legal expert on child abuse cases says,

“The broad consensus across civil society, industry and government on the need to protect children from sexual exploitation online is of paramount importance. It provides a great opportunity for progress, but the challenge is for all sectors to build on this consensus constructively and comprehensively.”

John Carr the Chair and spokesperson for Children’s Charities in the UK says,

“There is no necessary contradiction between the desire to protect children online and the desire to protect free speech online”

Margaret Moran a member of Parliament in the UK and Chair of EURIM says, “Industry self regulation is desirable but it must have government support. At the same time legislative initiatives must be kept broad and flexible to respond to fast changing technologies.

END

[i] “One particular area of hope, but also concern, is the relationship of children and young people with the Internet. The Internet has opened new doors to them, to knowledge and culture. Yet, it can also present a threat to their safety. The program of this year’s meeting has a strong focus on the protection of children. And I hope that it will contribute to making them safer.” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon statement of the importance of protecting chidren oline at the inaugural session of the second IGF in Rio “

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Erm … I guess I am back;)

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

So … difficult to start after such a long period. Several times I promised several people to write and obviously I failed .. several times;). Then I was kind of determined I would post but I realised I forgot what was the URL of the log in site.

Today, I managed. Looking at Con Brio I immediately decided it needed a change … in its own time tho.

What has been going on lately or in the last few months? Nothing special, apart from a lot of travelling and work.

What else? Some minor details:

I am cold all the time;
I am still smitten by my two nephews;
I still like tango, but my dancing record for the last months is quite poor I must admit;
I managed to cure my internet obsession - considerably less online;
I still miss Brix and I would like to have a new dog;
I am still planning to do a postdoc in Belgium and England despite the fact I failed to write an application this year duo to many many other more serious issues going on in my life;)
I am rubbish at running lately - well for the last eight months at least;
I cut my hair.

I guess this is all for now ….

Posted in Blogging, General | 8 Comments »

Water-Ljubljana

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

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What I really Hate

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007

so prepotenti vozniki, ki pohodijo plin ravno takrat, k je pred njimi en ovink. Danes zjutri sem naletela na enga tazga pacota in se skor sesula na rolerjih. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Tipo je pohodu gas, lih ko je mel za zavit, tko da ga je na rahlo orosenem cestišču kar malček zaneslo. In jaz sem skušala bit res pazljiva, ker na rolerjih z laptopom na hrbtu zna bit usodno. Ta bučman pa z nekim prepotentnim BMW-jem uleti, in pol kot da bi bil tam znak *Please, by all means speed up!*.

Hmm, me zanima, zakaj ‘pristojni’ takih reči ne vidijo. Ok, to je blo zdej stupid retorično vprašanje, but anyway ….

Posted in General | 9 Comments »

Budapest Devastated

Sunday, August 20th, 2006

At 21.26 David sent me the first text:

“I went to see fireworks. Cataclysmic storm and huge collective panic. Am fine but literally drenched.”

At 21.48

“And I have flooding in my flat, 4th floor”.

As I am working I did not respond till this point, but this got me intrigued. I finally wrote back: “What happened? I don’t get it”.
“Huge storm, city is like devastated. Check net.”

Then I found out there was, in the midst of fireworks, a huge storm, wind was playing with people as if they were made out of paper. Two people have already been found dead and many are injured, city is completely under the water, like under siege. People are crying all over.

Hm, David just found out he will be soon moving back to Brussels as he got the position at ULB. That was some farewell!

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Blast in Tel Aviv

Monday, April 17th, 2006

Lisa’s story … I emailed her whether she was ok, and indeed she was not far … here are her photos. She is one brave girl. And apparently a great journalist.

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I knew it!

Monday, April 17th, 2006

As per usual, I ran into this test at Jeremy’s page. Of course, I could’t resist as I wanted an official confirmation that I truley belong in London. And I took the test … waiting for the results, hoping London would pop-up … if it had been any other city, of course, I would have been sad sad sad … But … I belong in London … right, packing … moving for ever … leaving in two weeks! (ok, I really fly off in two weeks, but just for virtual methods event).

You Belong in London

You belong in London, but you belong in many cities… Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sidney. You fit in almost anywhere. And London is diverse and international enough to satisfy many of your tastes. From curry to Shakespeare, London (almost) has it all!

What European City Do You Belong In?

Posted in General, Les Voyages | No Comments »

Sweet Coincidence

Thursday, April 13th, 2006

“Things aren’t exactly random, but they aren’t completely determined either.” it’s how Becker describes coincidence. Lately in my life, coincidence plays such a crucial role. It always did probably, only that I wasn’t so attentive to it. So here’s what happened yesterday and it made my day:

I was invited to the cinema KINODVOR to see a movie, called Czech dream - (which deserves its own post anyway). Those who might remember, a few years ago we were able to buy our own seat in there to support the cinema. So I did with my friends. I never went and visit before, shame on me. So yesterday I got this ticket and …. it was exactly my seat. Of course I didn’t realise that until the end, when I started to look around which seat that must have been (all I remembered was that it was on a balcony). After checking several, I looked at the one I sat on and it said: Sapienti sat! I was like a little kid who got a new bicycle;)

I know, small, trivial story but for me the light of the day. Anyone has any nice coincidence to share?

Posted in General | 5 Comments »

Ph(ilosopher)’s hints

Thursday, February 9th, 2006

This philosopher, who has called his field a boring, pedantic, useless and pretentious subject, from time to time writes some wisdoms and advices, and I thought (as they are useful and funny) that it would be super selfish of me not to share them. Allora, here they are:
A great motivation technique: stand up once every few hours and shout “Shaka” - as loud as you can (it also helps to release pressure;))

In case you didn’t know yet, here is a thick description of academia: “academia is a large house with lots and lots of highly intelligent, over qualified and underemployed people that are getting paid to do nothing but ripping each others work into pieces”.

A tip on how to live your life: “Live your life as if you want to write a biography and not a CV!!!”

Bu.sh. must be the official abbreviation for “bull shit”… this philosopher has also noticed that Bush is a “four letter word”, which is an expression for everything nasty, because all swearwords seem to have four letters in English (sh**, f***, s***,d***,c***).

Women and men looks: for a woman its much easier to look magically - she only puts her lipstick on, while guys have to go to the gym for three months;)

To be efficient with work: one should take a bit time off! We are all the time concerned with not wasting time, and forget to really switch off!

To be continued …

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