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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">I’m posting here some thoughts recently discussed among members
of the civil society coordination group for comments and input. It
relates to some options for this group. It would be good to have
comments and input. (Ian Peter has also posted this message to the
governance list; reply on whichever thread you wish, and we will
capture them all.)<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">What we are proposing is a period of on line discussion,
after which we will probably conduct some sort of on line straw
poll to get a feeling for how people think about options emerging.
So please comment and digest, and we will look forward to getting
wide input.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">But firstly- is there a need for such a group? </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">There certainly was in the context of appointing
representatives for Brazil and 1net, and we would argue that it is
highly advisable for functions such as MAG nominations. Perhaps
there are no other great needs at this stage, but they might
arise. And certainly a continuing communication between groups
working in the area of internet governance might be useful.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">The alternative to all of this re-organisation would be
for the group to go into recess until another urgent need arises.
But that choice would simply reinforce the criticism that exists
of this group (or its successors) when there is a need again - or
alternatively lead to fragmented selection processes that hinder
civil society representation.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
1. EXPANSION OF THE CO-ORDINATION GROUP
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">This has been the subject of previous discussion with a
number of different parties and it was decided to defer further
considerations until after Brazil nominations were complete. There
was also some discussion on list here immediately before
Christmas about some possible criteria for involvement.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">One possibility we would suggest here is we could decide
to enlarge the group to (say) 9 -12 people. The current voting
members could remain and would be joined by one of the incoming
IGC Co-ordinators. For additional voting members, we suggest that
we open it up to expressions of interest – but not only from
organisations, but also from individuals. That allows involvement
of representatives of multistakeholder groups with a strong
relationship with civil society (eg IRP). That might be a good
step, and to this we could add rotation of members.... or leave
such questions until the co ordination group is fully populated.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">That’s the first issue where clarity is needed. But how to
select....</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">2. SELECTION PROCEDURES (possibly for expanding the co
ordination group, but also for any future CS representation).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">We present three different options here.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">OPTION ONE - VOTING</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">This works well within one organisation, but is more
difficult with multi-organisational elections – who is in for
voting, who is out? And some of us remember the original ICANN at
large elections, where suddenly thousands of people with no
previous involvement got involved in support of one candidate who
was elected with a large majority. The context for us here is
that, without a consolidated membership list of all our
organisations, this is very open to capture and manipulation. And
setting up and maintaining a multi-organisation single voting list
is a fairly time consuming administrative task. (and then we need
to ask which organisations mailing lists and/or membership lists
would be included)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">So there are a few issues to solve if we take that
direction.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">OPTION TWO – RANDOM NOMCOM</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">This option has been widely used in IETF and was adopted
in the Charter of IGC. We are not aware of anywhere else it is
used but there may be some other examples.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">While this form is gospel to some people, others have
reservations.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">Ian Peter writes, as one critic with some experience of
this</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">“My personal reservations arise from involvement with
perhaps 9 or so random Nomcoms, with the following results:</p>
<ul>
<li>2 included known trolls.</li>
<li>Only one of 9 had all members active – most worked on the
basis of only one or two active members.</li>
<li>One refused to work with the appointed Chair</li>
<li>One had the Chair drop out mid process and ended up with one
individual making decisions</li>
<li>Gender and geographic balance are purely left up to chance.”</li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">To this we would add issues involved with random selection
when factions/different organisations are involved. It is easy in
this case for important sections of CS to be left out entirely
from deliberations because they weren’t randomly selected.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">So some of us caution against use of this form in the
context of a multi-organisational steering group, arguing that
these are important matters of representation best not left to
chance.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">OPTION THREE – APPOINTED NOMCOM</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">This is the most widely used form and is used by technical
community, business community, ICANN, and just about any other
organisation we can think of. It’s the safest way, providing that
transparent, accountable and inclusive processes are used to
select the members of the Nomcom. That would be something the
coordination group mentioned above could undertake when in place.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">And I am sure there are other variations. But they need to
be agreed to and sorted out.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> <br>
<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">3. CRITERIA</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">We also need criteria for selection. Previously we
discussed these in terms of determining suitable organisations who
would nominate representatives. But if we are looking at
individuals as well, they will need to change. But for reference,
the previous discussions left these under consideration</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 72pt; MARGIN-RIGHT:
0cm; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1
lfo1">1. Is it a coalition which is globally representative - all
regions covered?</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 72pt;
LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-INDENT: -18pt; mso-add-space: auto">2.
Is it non-commercial and public interest oriented (as opposed to
business)?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 54pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"><br>
3. Would it more properly fit under technical community,
academic, business or government in its categorization?<br
style="mso-special-character: line-break">
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break">
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 54pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">4. Is a large part of this coalition's members already
covered by one of the existing members?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt 54pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"><br>
5. The internal governance of the coalition is adequately
transparent and accountable to its members. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 5pt 54pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">6. Does the coalition have a substantial current
involvement in and knowledge of internet governance issues</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">Obviously if individuals are to be considered these have
to change.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT:
normal">Over to everyone for comments.</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<p style="font-size:9.0pt;color:black"><b>Dr Jeremy Malcolm<br>
Senior Policy Officer<br>
Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for
consumers</b><br>
Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East<br>
Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, TTDI, 60000 Kuala
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Tel: +60 3 7726 1599</p>
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