WSF Update February 2005 by Ruby van der Wekken

Methodology of WSF 2005
The V World Social Forum 2005 took place in Porto Alegre from January 26 to 31, 2005, had 155.000 participants from 135 countries and hosted 2.500 activities. This years WSF did not see any WSF centrally organized events. The new methodology of the WSF was based on the self organizing capacities of its participants. Read more in the IC report on some of the conclusions on the new methodology drawn during the IC meeting.

Mural of Proposal
The forum still operates according to the logic of it being an open space: no statements are issued in name of the WSF. The new methodology of the forum has however been designed to facilitate the cooperation between those working on similar issues and ultimately also the elaboration of joint future action. Concrete proposals which came out of the joint work at the WSF are collected on the so-called Mural of Proposal which so far has collected some 350 proposals.

The Manifesto of the "Group of 19"
A group of 19 high profile thinkers were however of the opinion a collective statement needs to be issued.

WSF IC discussions on WSF 2006 and 2007
Whereas certain questions still remain open as for instance the periodicity in the future of the WSF, it has been decided that WSF 2006 will take place in a spread out manner and WSF 2007 in Africa. See also the IC report and read the official decisions of the IC