She’s a Peruvian heading towards The Mountain Forum in Nepal. The forum is particularly created as a medium of alternative communication for mountainous areas, which is why, since its conception, it has specifically used the internet as a communication tool between the participating people and communities that constitute the different nodes.
She’s a Peruvian heading towards The Mountain Forum in Nepal. The forum is particularly created as a medium of alternative communication for mountainous areas, which is why, since its conception, it has specifically used the internet as a communication tool between the participating people and communities that constitute the different nodes.
This forum has had moderated list-servs, experts that offer virtual conferences, an interactive portal with a virtual library and a calendar of events, among other relevant services.
The Mountain Forum was born from Chapter 13 of the the World Summit for Sustainable Development and consists of a secretariat that is operated by organizations that spearhead the five nodes in Africa, Latin America, Pacific Asia, North America and Europe.
Ana María Ponce was the coordinator of InfoAndina for seven years in the Latin American forum directed from Condesan with its headquarters in Lima, Peru. She is currently living in Nepal working at Icimod, the international NGO where the Mountain Forum is headquartered. Infoandina was one of the first organizations in the region to use electronic forums for distance training and learning processes.
In the WSIS, the Mountain Forum shares a stand with Icimod, from which they hope to establish a presence as civil society representatives from Asia; they also hope to make contacts and seek alliances to develop projects.
Ana-Maria’s opinion on the summit is that “regional represention is not as diverse as it was in Geneva in 2003 where there were people and organizations from all the continents. For example, there aren’t many organizations from Latin America here”.