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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Coming in late to this discussion I want to support Daniel (and Deidre’s) comments but also add that restricting funding support to those from LDC’s is highly discriminatory on several levels. While agreeing that extraordinary efforts should be made to ensure as wide a diversity of opinions as possible and that the inclusion of those from LDC’s needs to be a funding priority given the overall absence of available local resources for participation in these activities there is within this position the assumption that those from the Developed Countries will themselves have access to resources for participation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>While this is certainly true in many instances it is generally true only for those with close affiliations of some sort to one or another of the major institutional sources of funding—universities, major NGO’s, major donors, more recently ICANN etc. Of course, not all suitable and desirable participants from DC’s will have such affiliations and it is at least arguable that those with the most independent and critical perspectives are those least likely to have such access to resources or to feel constrained in their positions if they were to accept support from certain available sources.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>My feeling is that an appropriate funding formula would be based on overall likelihood of effective and useful contribution where issues of geographical, gender, and normative diversity are all equally included as criteria.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>M<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> bestbits-request@lists.bestbits.net [mailto:bestbits-request@lists.bestbits.net] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Daniel Pimienta<br><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, September 23, 2014 4:13 AM<br><b>To:</b> Best Bits<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [bestbits] [governance] Re: Call for nominations for civil society representatives for the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory group (MAG)<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>I support all the issues that Deirdre raises and would benefit immensely from hearing about solutions for the problems she presents.<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><p class=MsoNormal><br>Mishi,<br><br>Back, beetween 2000 and 2005, we have been (quite succesfully I would say from the many evaluations) experimenting methodologies for what we called "Distance Participation" in the project MISTICA (Methodologies and Social Impact of ICT in Latin America - <a href="http://funredes.org/mistica">http://funredes.org/mistica</a> ) and at the same time we were also experimenting with imbedding translation into virtual community communication (to solve the second barreer for participation after distance which is language). MISTICA was not multistakeholder by design (it was centered on civil society) but indeed have make some interesting contributions to democratic process in virtual spaces which could apply to multi-stakeholder communities.<br><br>The following paper (which by the way was translated from Spanish by Deirdre :-)) could give some insights to the whole process:<br><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'><a href="http://funredes.org/mistica/english/cyberlibrary/thematic/icie/">At the Boundaries of Ethics and Cultures</a></span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'> <a href="http://funredes.org/mistica/english/cyberlibrary/thematic/icie/">: Virtual Communities as an Open Ended Process Carrying the Will for Social Change (the "MISTICA" experience)</a></span> .<br><br>The method had nothing to do with the use of synchronous resources for broadcasting the meeting; it was, by design, an <b>asynchronous </b>management based on the following axiom:<br><i>even if a virtual community organize a face to face meeting the center of gravity of the community remains virtual</i>.<br>The whole design of the meeting was made with that principle in mind, e.g. not allowing decisions be made by the lucky minority in face to face encounters but keeping a whole community process for decision making. This way of processing trigger many interesting consequences which warrant due and democratic processes and, I would say, provoke a radical change in the way face to face participants perceive their own participation.<br><br>This obviously requires to think the design of the meeting differently, organizing delayed interactions after meeting sections, but that will keep face to face participants in sync with the community and allow sometime some interesting situation when a face to face participant can also interact by the virtual asynchronius channel.<br><br>The same type of methodologies were also experimented at the same time by colleagues working for Fondation pour le Progrès de l'Humanité in order to manage the Alliance for a Responsible, Plureal and United World (<a href="http://www.alliance21.org/"> http://www.alliance21.org</a>). The French article on Wikipedia does refer to Distance Participation (see <a href="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_pour_un_monde_responsable,_pluriel_et_solidaire">http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_pour_un_monde_responsable,_pluriel_et_solidaire</a> ).<br><br>If people are interested I coud offer more details off the list.<br><br><br>-- <br>This message has been scanned for viruses and <br>dangerous content by <a href="http://www.mailscanner.info/"><b>MailScanner</b></a>, and is <br>believed to be clean. <o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>