<div dir="ltr">Hi Jeremy<div><br></div><div>It is good to see the longevity of Bestbits, in its 5 year-old run. </div><div>This is a space which has done a lot for civil society and it will certainly continue to do so. </div><div>There are many new groups and activists in civil society looking forward to learn from the steps taken here and to collaborate.</div><div>I would like to help bring together the experienced and the new participants here.</div><div>So my option would be #2 and I'd be glad to work with others interested in thinking of new ways for Bestbits.</div><div>I believe rebuilding the Steering Committee (3 years old) is important but also to bring in new voices who have ideas for the shape of the platform and who are interested in participating of internet governance communities.</div><div>If we can broaden this search for new members and collaborators among ISOC Ambassadors, ICANN fellows, Youth IG movements, grassroots internet freedom initiatives, it would be great.</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Renata</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 7:23 PM, Jeremy Malcolm <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jmalcolm@eff.org" target="_blank">jmalcolm@eff.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
15 new members have joined this list since last week, and a new
sign-on statement has been posted on our website, both of which mark
an uptick in interest in this civil society network on Internet
policy. So I thought it would be a good time to gather your
thoughts on future directions for Best Bits.<br>
<br>
For those who are new, this group was originally formed in 2012
primarily to provide an action-oriented network of CSOs that could
share information and coordinate their response to various current
Internet threats, most notably at that time various proposals for
the ITU World Conference on International Telecommunications.<br>
<br>
Since then it has been used as a platform for communication (mainly
through this list, there have been others from time to time but none
remain active), joint actions such as the sign-on statements that we
host, coordination between people involved in similar activities,
and an annual meeting held prior to the IGF.<br>
<br>
Around 2014 calls for greater accountability in the operation of
what had, until then, been a fairly loosely and informally organised
group, led to the establishment of a <a href="https://bestbits.net/about/steering-committee/" target="_blank">steering
committee</a> and agreement on <a href="https://bestbits.net/wiki/main/procedures/" target="_blank">a set of rules</a>.
But that turned out to be counterproductive and so we have regressed
to being ad hoc and informal again.<br>
<br>
This is fine, except that it means that it's difficult to raise
funding for events, and that you have to rely on a benevolent
dictator (which is, by default, me) to moderate the list and and
keep the server ticking over. For now I'm OK with doing this, and
our server remains functional and funded for the near future.<br>
<br>
Last year we turned over our regular pre-IGF meeting to co-ownership
with the other major civil society networks working in Internet
policy spaces, viz. the groups that are under the umbrella of the <a href="http://internetgov-cs.org/" target="_blank">Internet
Governance Civil Society Coordination Group</a>. That went pretty
well, marking something of a return to the original Best Bits
vision.<br>
<br>
At this point, I don't have a clear personal vision for Best Bits
going forward, so I would like to turn this question over to you,
the participants to find out what you want to be done. To break it
down into a simple choice between two options, we should
collectively choose between either one of these:<br>
<ol>
<li>Maintain the current low-key status quo, and remove the
currently unused or underused features of our web such as our
joint event calendar (which currently doesn't have anyone to
maintain it), along with most of the resources under the "Tools"
menu on our website. Rely on other groups to pitch in on an
annual meeting.</li>
<li>Conversely, seek to reestablish a steering committee of people
with time, energy and vision to reinvigorate Best Bits and
re-establish a program of activities, which could include
actively organizing and raising funds for a broad annual civil
society meeting, and/or drafting joint statements, supporting
fluid working groups, etc.</li>
</ol>
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.<br>
<pre class="m_769851796451404393moz-signature" cols="72">--
Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Global Policy Analyst
Electronic Frontier Foundation
<a class="m_769851796451404393moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://eff.org" target="_blank">https://eff.org</a>
<a class="m_769851796451404393moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jmalcolm@eff.org" target="_blank">jmalcolm@eff.org</a>
Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161
:: Defending Your Rights in the Digital World ::
Public key: <a class="m_769851796451404393moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.eff.org/files/2016/11/27/key_jmalcolm.txt" target="_blank">https://www.eff.org/files/<wbr>2016/11/27/key_jmalcolm.txt</a>
PGP fingerprint: 75D2 4C0D 35EA EA2F 8CA8 8F79 4911 EC4A EDDF 1122</pre>
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