<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div dir="ltr">Happy Sunday people.<br><br><ol><li>I am replying ONLY on Best Bits since that is where I am on "Steering".</li><li>My understanding is that this thread on transparency is motivated by the deep desire for "CS actions, opinions" to remain Indpendent. So I link both</li>
<li>Since this is Best Bits, I figure the question is "Nnenna, as a member of BB Steering, are your activities funded by a government?"</li></ol><p>I have me a few questions:</p><ol><li>What activities has the Best Bits group carried out in recent times? How many of these had a total buy in from all group "members?". How many felt their opinions were "taken over" by individuals in the Steering.</li>
<li>Why question "leadership" and not "membership"? <br></li><li>Does the request to "disclose any direct or indirect financial relationship to any "capacity building" or similar kind of project where a US government agency is among the funders." really mean what I am reading? I do Church Choir projects, Association of Bloggers of Cote d'Ivoire, GhanaBlogging, Enough is Enough Nigeria, Adventist Development and Relief Agency etc.. and someone in Best Bits is asking me if any of these is funded by a government; US or otherwise?</li>
<li>Are we supposing that the "Best Bits activities" of a Steering member is the main thing they do in their lives? <br></li></ol><p>I will agree with CSO transparency and I believe in it. But I am thinking that the question, at least the way it is framed, is coming in at a wrong time, to the wrong group, under circumstances that are easily misconstrued.<br>
<br></p><p>My suggestion will be that we request people, as a measure to guarantee CS indpendence, to disclose any possible conflict of interest, in the framework of ACTIVITIES. Opinion is a right, and should not be question.</p>
<p>One last question. In the just ended Bali IGF, I contributed as a Best Bits Steering person, and also:</p><ol><li>Contributed to Best Bits meetings</li><li>Tweeting the #IGF2013 with my personal Twitter account of 5000+ followers<br>
</li><li>Did a podcast for law students on the need for online freedom</li><li>Delivered a speech on opening ceremony on behalf of CSO stakeholdergroup</li><li>Showed up and 8 am to do Orientation of new comers on Day 0</li>
<li>Sat through the High Level Leaders Meeting<br></li><li>Was a panelist on WS 171 on Gender, 354 on WSIS+10, 145 on Regional Coordination, 31 on Africa, and the Focus session on Inter-regional coordination.<br></li><li>
Was a remote participation moderator on 2 panels</li></ol><p>If my participation (travel, accommodation, meals) were to have been paid by the government of Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Azerbaijan, United States or Al Qaeda.. <br>
<br></p><p>Will that mean I would be less "Civil Society" than someone whose participation 'see above' was paid for by ... errr Ford Foundation?<br></p><p>DISCLOSURE: I do not work for Best Bits. I work for The World Wide Web Foundation (For some weeks now). I have contributed in CSO circles in Internet Governance/ Information Society since 2000. In WSIS days, funding to some global south CSO participants came through different sources, passed through different channels and were managed by diverse organisations. In the framework of the IGF:<br>
</p><p>FOSSFA - The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa paid my Nairobi bill<br></p><p>APC - Association for Progressive Communications paid my Baku bill.<br></p><p>NRO - Network of Internet Regional Registries paid my Bali bill.<br>
<br></p><p>Non of the above has been my employer at any point in time. And each has a website where you can find out what they do and get an idea of where their money comes from.</p><p>Best of the new week</p><p><br></p>
<p>Nnenna</p><p>====<br></p><p></p><p>PS/ Avri, are you good with grant writing? The type that US government+consort require? You may just be the one a friend is looking for!! :)<br>
</p></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 12:40 PM, JFC Morfin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jefsey@jefsey.com" target="_blank">jefsey@jefsey.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5">"19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."<br>
<br>
I understand that in this text:<br>
<br>
- the "everyone" leads to a not achievable cohesion problem for Anriette,<br>
- that may result from the kind of "interference" Norbert would like to prevent.<br>
- Parminder addresses it with a simple solution: whoever you are, whatever your opinion make me trust they are not biased by a paid agenda.<br>
<br>
I disclosed as requested. I am favorable to a CS Oath as does the Olympic Committee which has a similar problem.<span><font color="#888888"><br>
jfc<br>
<br>
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