<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body ><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">-+1 nick, such conspiracy theories aren't productive and at this stage they are actually moot, with the Bali igf likely to just not happen. Hanlon razor differentiating between incompetence and malice is a very useful test, I must say. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">That said, I will now thank parminder for calling out the Bali organizing committee trying to run a cash for speaker slots program, that is just not on. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">Two things are clear - we need an independent standing program committee, of course with local host representative(s) and the other thing is that sponsorship from wherever it comes, UN, national governments, industry, civil society, should be compensated with something other than speaker slots. Advertising at the venue, sponsorship of lunch, coffee and dinner, etc is fine to an extent but sponsorship must be rigidly firewalled from the program committee's processes. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">-srs</span></div><br><br><br>-------- Original message --------<br>From: Nick Ashton-Hart <nashton@consensus.pro> <br>Date: 07/27/2013 1:50 PM (GMT+05:30) <br>To: governance@lists.igcaucus.org,parminder <parminder@itforchange.net> <br>Cc: Kivuva <Kivuva@transworldafrica.com> <br>Subject: Re: [governance] IGF Cancelled <br> <br><br>If the time and energy that was spent on black helicopter thinking was spent on helping to fix the problem of sustainable funding for the IGF then we'd be a lot farther along than we are. Whether or not your POV is accurate, Parminder, wouldn't it be more useful to focus on fixing the funding problem so that it no longer matters whether you are right or not?<div><br></div><div>As a friend in Geneva said recently, there is making a point, and there is making a difference. Given the situation we are in, could we please aim for the latter and not the former?</div><div><br><div><div>On 27 Jul 2013, at 10:16, parminder <<a href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net">parminder@itforchange.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; ">One can clearly see now where it was meant to be headed.... Bali disaster is just an episode on the way of a well crafted ploy to corporatised governance and kill democracy. Sooner the democratic and pulbic interest minded civil socity actors in the IG space understand the game and distance themselves from it, the better. In fact to do so is crucial if democracy is to be saved.</span><br style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "></blockquote></div><br></div></body>