Vecam
Vecam is a non profit organization, created in 1995. Acting first as a think tank on social and political impacts of ICTs (information and communication technologies), it has evolved through years with some more concrete projects in order to facilitate the use of ICT for empowerment. Vecam has been involved in several international arenas, such as the dot force and WSIS (world summit on information society) where the association has tried to push forward a vision of an inclusive and creative information society.
In 2005, Vecam has organized a public event in Paris, dedicated to the issues of the commons and development, which gathered people coming from different movements (free software movement, seeds and indigenous knowledge, drugs and neglected diseases, open science...). A book called pouvoir - savoir (power - knowledge) came out of it.
IN 2005, Vecam together with 2 other organizations, has also coordinated the collective book Words matter, a multicultural perspectives on information societies. It gathers contributions from thirty authors from civil societies all over the world, deciphers the central concepts of the information society.
In 2009, Vecam was involved in the preparation and coordination of the first World forum on science and democracy, which took place in Belem (Brasil), in connection with the World social forum. Among other things, Vecam coordinated the workshop dedicated to the Commons. A video-book was released out of this meeting. Called Science and Democracy, it includes interviews and extracts of the Forum which deal with the main issues at stake, as well as a documentary on a young researcher working in the Amazonian forest with the local communities.
Another book dedicated to the Commons is under preparation and should be released in December 2010.
All books can be bought on the web site of our publisher C&F Editions.
3 members of Vecam are attending the Berlin event : Frédéric Sultan, Hervé Le Crosnier and Valerie Peugeot.