How to participate
The Forum is open to any person interested in sharing his/her views and experiences relevant to the subject matter.
The Forum will open on Monday, 18 May 2009 at 01:00 (GMT/UTC) and will close on Friday, 29 May 2009 at 23:00 (GMT/UTC). (Click
here to convert these times to your local time.)
In order to ensure equitable participation in the Forum, the discussion will take place both online through the Biosafety Clearing-House and via e-mail.
Individuals interested in participating in the Forum are invited to register
here. Only registered participants are able to post messages to the Forum but all messages posted can be read by the general public.
While on the Forum website, participants must first be signed in to the Forum in order to post messages. Once signed in, participants can reply to a message by clicking the ‘reply’ button found under the text of that message. Participants can also click the ‘create a new thread’ button to post a message and begin a new thread of discussion under that theme.
Individuals wishing to participate via e-mail can choose to 'watch' the discussions taking place under the different themes. These individuals will then receive copies of the posted messages by e-mail, may send e-mails to reply to the messages received and their response will be posted to the web page.
The Forum will be conducted in English only.
Contact the Secretariat at
standards.forum@cbd.int for any questions about the Forum.
The Forum
The Forum consists of a number of discussion groups as well as an ‘ask an expert’ section.
The discussion groups are organized into four themes according to the guiding questions for the Forum that were submitted by Parties and other organizations. Visit the
discussion groups for more information.
In the ‘ask an expert’ section, a number of experts from different international organizations that work in areas related to standards for the handling, transport, packaging and identification of living modified organisms will be available online to answer questions submitted by participants. Visit the
‘ask an expert’ section for more details.
Moderation
Contributions from participants will be posted directly to the discussion groups without moderation. The Secretariat reserves the right to remove contributions or parts thereof that are inconsistent with the objectives, rules and guidelines of the Forum.
Questions to the experts were will be moderated prior to being posted on the web site. Participants are thus encouraged to submit their questions to the experts as soon as the Forum is open.
Rules of the Forum
- Contributions of participants will be considered to have been made in their personal capacity unless they explicitly state that their interventions represent the views of their government or organization.
- All participants shall exercise respect and courtesy towards all other participants.
- Participants shall not post abusive, libellous or misleading messages / materials / links.
- Each participant shall be solely responsible for any information, materials, or links to any materials, that he/she posts or disseminates electronically.
- By registering for the Forum, participants have expressly authorised the CBD Secretariat to summarise and disseminate all or part of their postings to the Forum as part of reports or any other document(s) that may be subsequently prepared by the Secretariat.
General guidelines for posting messages to the Forum
Participants are expected to:
- Briefly introduce themselves when posting their first message, including their name, title, country and institutional affiliation.
- Keep their messages short, concise and focussed. Each message should not exceed 300 words (or no more than a full screen long).
- Ensure that the messages are relevant to the topic/question being discussed.
- Exclude the original text of the previous posting when responding to a posted message in order to allow participants with limited internet connectivity to easily access and download the messages.
- Make the subject header as descriptive as possible about the content of the message so that other participants can easily decide which messages to read and respond to.
- Maintain the original subject-heading when responding to someone else’s posting.
- Make sure they do not link to any files that contain viruses, are corrupted or have any other similar deficiencies.
Disclaimer
The CBD Secretariat does not endorse, represent or guarantee the accuracy or reliability of any messages or materials posted by participants.
