See the invite and info menu https://www.asiasocialforum.net/info Also hover on it and select a page in the drop down menu See indications in the lower part of home page here https://www.asiasocialforum.net/ about organization page activity page action page

The APSF Glossary / Vocabulary is here : https://www.asiasocialforum.net/vocabulary

The World Social Forum is an open meeting placefor reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humankind and between it and the Earth This is the first principle of a reference document called charter of WSF principles explaining 1/ what WSF is ( a space, a process, events) and what WSF is not ( it is not an organization, it is not representing civil society) ( principles 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 11,12, 13, 14) , 2/ what are generic values goals actions of those participating in WSF ( principles 1, 4, 10, 1,1 12) 3/ which are some basic operating rules for sustaining the process ( principle 3, 6, 7, 8, 9) . Those principles are "to be respected" by who participates and organize /facilitate manifestations of the wsf event/space/process ( see preamble of the WSF charter document)

WSF, being a space of encounters and process of intercommunication between civil society organizations, is not an organization with representation legal existence, leadership , spokespersons, action program, official narrative etc..

It was started in 2001 in brasil after a decade of dynamic articulation counteracting of the events organized by the Washington consensus organization WTO World Bank G7 etc - it was named World Social Forum as a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum started in davos in 1971 – After a first successful event facilitated by 8 organizations in brazil, those organizations drafted the wsf principles and proposed them for adoption to a group of international CSO networks, that instituted itself as internacional council of WSF, with a mission to care about the development and deepening of the process and not be a political body representing the process

Any civil society organization that respects the principles, or, in a more active tone, that considers itself as a "participant entity" in the WSF "process", as those words are described in the wsf principles - So it is an open space in the sense that organizations come to participate through self declaration of respect/adhesion, and there is not gate keeper.

Basically 1/ make themselves visible as participants (usually in a website for an event or for the process, 2/ announce hold and document “activities” or simply participate in them . "Activities" are moments of dialogue of a few hours proposed by a group of organizations with a topic a format a methodology 3/ announce and wage initiatives of action which are line of action in a mid term perspective ( struggles, campaigns, projects, practices) with a goal and an action plan assumed by a group of organizations with public action dates that can be gathered in a calendar of actions of participants in WSF 4/ produce news about their participation in wsf towards other participants and the general public

This is the information of who is participating and who is proposing activities and assuming initiatives of action. Each participating organizations is visible with information of contact and organization related in network mode, activities where the organization is a co proposing entity, initiatives of action where that organization is co waging initiator

Facilitation are all the acts necessary for building and maintaining an implementation of the vision of wsf principles in a real context with a geographic or thematic focus, or in the course of time As succession of events which are a concentration of activities in time, each social forum process is an autonomous construccion with a facilitating committee formed by a group of CSOs that understand the wsf principles and commit to cooperate to develop such an implementation of wsf vision in a territory (geographical process) or around a theme ( thematical social forum process ( there can be other manifestation of the process than events) The succession of World events started in Porto Alegre in 2001 is the World WSF process and co facilitated by event facilitation collective and the internacional council WSF A facilitation collective use decision by consensus/ consent for the decisions needed to implement the process or the event, and is not considering itself as a political representative body of the participants in that event/process - There is also a document called “guiding principles for organizeing wsf events"

There was an Asia social forum event in Hyderabad india in 2003 and a World Social Forum event in Mumbai in 2004, an India social forum in 2006, a world polycentric event in Karachi in 2006, an Asia social forum in Dhaka in 2011 Then a thematic forum in Hyderabad in 2016, a Nepal social forum in 2018 . an annual local urban social forum in Indonesia. There is a series of movements that have participated physically In some WSF world events, or have heard about WSF from those who participated physically - However for different reasons, the facilitating energy to propose new events has not been gathered in the last decade in Asia, except for smaller manifestions / event February 2022 on line event has been a first manifestation of an asia pacific social forum process

Each manifestation of WSF process is self founded - the facilitation collective for the event gets ressouces from its member organizations, from the participations fees, and from donors organisations compatible with wsf principles - There is also a document called “guiding prinicples for organizeing wsf events"

WSF concept and format has given way to many manifestation of social forum events at local, national, regional, and thematic scale. – The faciliting comittes set up to facilitate a series of event in time which shape a social forum process are autonomous - The international council of WSF is co responsible of the world scale multithamtic events with each WSF world event facilitating committee

For each line of social forum events continuing in time, there can be a social forum process associated, and the process periods are those in between the conseucutive events that may be separated by one or two or more years - .The capacity of a facilitating committee to sustain an open space process during those inter-event periods gives or not substance to the notion of a permanent process

As a space and process, WSF is a place where participants are welcome to show or to conceive and plan lines of action, according to dialogues they might have - WSF principle 7 stipulates that wsf facilitatros commit to make visible decisions and actions taken by participating entities - In that sense WSF is a space of encounters where there can be "articulation for effective action", as per principle 1 – In wsf 2021 and wsf2022 the format of initiative of action has allowed to show specifically those mid term line of actions and the related public action dates part of their plan of action