<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="line-height:15.333332061767578px">Dear All,</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">
<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">This Tuesday morning, in Istanbul, the members of the
Internet Governance Civil Society Coordination Group attending the IGF2014
(Deirdre Williams standing in for Mawaki Chango from the IGC, Jeremy Malcolm
from Best Bits, Norbert Bollow from JNC, Chat Garcia from APC and YJ Park as an
observer; the others could not make it) met with Alan Marcus, Danil Kerimi and
Alexandra Shaw from the World Economic Forum about our potential role in nominating
representatives to the transitional steering committee of what we had all known
as the NETmundial Initiative. This followed on from a phone call that the
chair of our group, Ian Peter had had with them yesterday Istanbul time.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">One of the first points that was made in the meeting
was that at the WEF they do not regard "NETmundial Initiative" as the
name of the initiative, although some of their early champions (notably ICANN
of course) have been calling it this. So it seems that they will be
willing to call it by another name from now on, and suggested "Global
Net" which is an anglicized version of NETmundial. Presumably, many
of us will warmly welcome this news.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Their description of their vision of the initiative
was otherwise mostly consistent with earlier accounts, though they did stress
that the formation of a new institution to house the initiative now seems
unlikely since they have been listening to pushback about this. They see
the initiative as a platform for working groups to execute projects that the
community has identified as important, and the first four projects that were
unveiled at the Geneva meeting were merely intended as examples of four such
projects that had been identified by the Ilves Panel, on which some "quick
wins" might be achieved.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">The value add of the WEF, they explained, is to bring
in high-level participation from companies and governments that are otherwise
not part of Internet governance discussions. The steering committee would
include all stakeholders to ensure that all perspectives have a voice about
shaping the Initiative including its projects. </span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">They are
looking for a committee maximum size of about 15 people. The other members
would be 3-4 from each one of the following groups: business </span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">(including
at least two representatives at CEO level)</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">, government, intergovernmental
organizations, tech community </span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">(notably ISOC and ICANN)</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black"> and
academics. Please note: they confirmed their intention to treat academic community
separately to Civil Society or technical community or any other grouping – as per
NetMundial and 1net patterns.</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">The original conception of WEF was that they would
appoint half of the civil society representatives on the transitional steering
committee because they are project partners that WEF has worked with before.
Several members of our Coordination Group suggested that their constituencies
would probably push back against this, and that if the purpose of the steering
committee was in part to draw on the legitimacy that civil society
participation provides, it would make sense that we be empowered to
self-appoint all of our own representatives. WEF seemed to accept this
counsel, with the result that we would be asked to make four appointments.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">They were unclear about exactly what the time
commitment for transitional steering committee representatives would be, or
exactly what the responsibilities would entail, though forming an accountable
permanent steering committee structure for launch around the next Davos meeting
(if possible) was one of the responsibilities envisaged. They did assure
us that if travel to meetings was required, expenses would be paid for those
who required this.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Criteria for appointment are still to be discussed by
the Coordination Group, but from WEF's perspective, they agreed that they would
not insist on a previous working relationship with WEF as a criterion, but they
would require that the participants are able to be constructive and can work
towards the formation of consensus. They said that they would value
people who can be bridge makers between the culture of the WEF and that of our
constituencies, because they acknowledged that they would probably make (more)
mistakes and would need help in correcting these. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">WEF, after our request, have extended our deadline to
submit names till September 21 – and there are still some details to
finalize. The timetable CSCG is discussing would see us begin a call for
nominations probably no later than Friday – the last day of IGF – to
allow discussion and further clarification before we commence any such process.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">I am posting this to begin such a discussion – others
present at the meeting may want to add comments of their own and discussions
will also occur on other lists.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Examples of previous multi-stakeholder initiatives
that they pointed to as being analogous to
The-Initiative-Formerly-Known-as-NETmundial included Grow Africa (<a href="http://growafrica.com/" target="_blank">http://growafrica.com/</a>)
and their climate change work (<a href="http://www.weforum.org/issues/climate-change-and-green-growth" target="_blank">http://www.weforum.org/issues/climate-change-and-green-growth</a>).
The News Release from the live event launching the initiative can be found
here: <a href="http://www.weforum.org/news/new-initiative-internet-governance-live-event?news=page">http://www.weforum.org/news/new-initiative-internet-governance-live-event?news=page</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">
<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Warm regards,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">Mawaki </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small;margin-bottom:0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-repeat:initial">
<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:black">IGC Co-coordinator</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:small"><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p></div>
</div>