World Social Forum

I had not heard of the World Social Forum before, but these two articles talk about it some:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4204829.stm
from 2005

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6281649.stm
from 2007

It is a gathering intended to be the opposite of the World Economic Forum, and as you can imagine it concerns itself with social issues such as poverty, disease, environmental damage, fair trade, etc.

It sounds like a very interesting forum that perhaps is able to accomplish something that the other ones (in which mainly people of means get together to talk about how the world can be improved) have failed to accomplish. I suppose it could be seen as the "socialist" vs. the "capitalist" forums, at least the way they describe in the articles.

"The World Social Forum describes itself as a platform for ordinary people to
exchange ideas opposed to a world dominated by capitalism and imperialism."

I am happy to hear about these kinds of things, and would like to know more
about these alternative forums and what they may or may not have been able to
accomplish. Anybody have any information about these?