<div dir="ltr"><p style="margin-bottom:0in">I asked in an earlier post <font color="#0000ff"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><font style="font-size:9pt">whether
civil society has been manoeuvred into a position in which choosing
not to be involved becomes not really an option?</font></font></font>
As civil society we have a very broad range of perspective and
therefore it is much more difficult for this group to act together
rapidly, as ISOC has done, when the nature of the issue itself is
still doubtful. Other people have already reminded us of the
hesitation before the NETmundial meeting in April, and the enthusiasm
(in general) which greeted the outcomes of that meeting, although
there are still some reservations – Renata just shared hers.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">My sympathies lean towards a reluctance
to provide legitimacy, but my common sense suggests the following:<br></p>
<ol>
<li><p style="margin-bottom:0in">As far as I can see the Netmundial
Initiative will continue with or without us.</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom:0in">Civil Society is split now (and
has been split for some time) so that any attempt at a boycott is
likely to fail because it will be incomplete.</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom:0in">The invitation to join can be
presented in such a way as to provide legitimacy even if not all of
civil society agrees to accept. (This is what I meant by
“manoeuvred” above.)
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom:0in">We have not been given a clear
picture of what the initiative is – it may prove to be something
that meets our approval – or not.</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom:0in">It is very important that any
civil society representatives who join that committee should be
people who go with an open mind. Those who disapprove are absenting
themselves anyway; it would be better to have representatives who
are initially neutral but open to be persuaded one way or the other.</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom:0in">Finally, should the initiative
prove to be unacceptable, a well publicised walkout by the 5 civil
society representatives (who are also representing “the world”)
would be much easier to arrange and much more effective than a
partial boycott before the meeting takes place.</p>
</li></ol>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">The discussion at the Geneva Internet
Conference about the Netmundial Initiative yesterday morning
(Wednesday 19<sup>th</sup>) was useful. On Tuesday during “<strong><font color="#58585a"><font face="Open Sans, sans-serif"><font style="font-size:9pt">Same
issues, different perspectives: overcoming policy silos in privacy
and data protection”, </font></font></font></strong><strong><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3"><span style="font-weight:normal">one
of the afternoon sessions, </span></font></font></font></strong><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Brian
Trammell, Senior Researcher, Communication Systems Group, ETH Zurich,
presenting the “technical” perspective, said of the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF</font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">)
that members are volunteers who “participate as individuals”.
This is also true of the Internet Governance Caucus, and essentially
of civil society as a whole. One of the freedoms that our society tries to
provide is the right of the individual to follow the dictates of
her/his own conscience. My own choice is a pragmatic one. It should
in no way be seen as a criticism of anyone else's point of view or
decision.</font></font><br></p><p style="margin-bottom:0in"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Deirdre</font></font></p><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 20 November 2014 11:41, Mawaki Chango <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kichango@gmail.com" target="_blank">kichango@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Fellas,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Some of us have raised questions about the views of the Brazilian party (CGI.br) in this NMI business. But I know they are in a delicate position and may be concerned to appear as judge and jury if they come out strong for a position (and we can expect which that position would be.) Flavio is not on the IGC list but he granted me the permission to forward to this list this message of his below, originally posted to the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group of ICANN's GNSO. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Best,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Mawaki</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default">Fw: [NCSG-Discuss] UPDATE ON CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION IN NET MUNDIAL INITIATIVE<br></div><div class="gmail_default"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><div dir="ltr" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;font-size:16px"><font face="Arial">On Wednesday, November 19, 2014 12:55 AM, Flávio Rech Wagner <<a href="mailto:flavio@INF.UFRGS.BR" target="_blank">flavio@INF.UFRGS.BR</a>> wrote:<br></font></div><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;font-size:16px"><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:HelveticaNeue,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,'Lucida Grande',sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div><div>Robin<br clear="none"><br clear="none">I have been informed that the "transitional council" of the NMI - NETmundial Initiative (which contains representatives from ICANN, CGI.br and WEF and is provisory, until the 25 names of the permanent council have been defined) is having an intense dialogue with CSCG (the Civil Society Coordination Group) and, together, they shall come to a solution for appointing names to the council by consensus and fully respecting nominations from Civil Society. There is no intention whatsoever from the transitional council to indicate names in a closed, top-down manner and without full endorsement from CSCG.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">The transitional council also expects to achieve similar solutions for appointing names that will represent other stakeholder groups.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Please notice that CGI.br (the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee), which is one of the entities proposing the NMI, would never agree with top-down, closed decisions that would strongly undermine CGI's legitimacy as a true bottom-up, multistakeholder body. CGI.br is completely committed to preserve the NETmundial principles in the implementation of the NMI.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Please remember also that, when NETmundial was proposed by the end of 2013, all of us in the global Internet Governance (IG) community, because of lack of information, were puzzled about its organization and possible success and outcomes. But the global community faced the challenge and transformed a vague idea into a successful event, with a true multistakeholder organization, with very open and transparent processes, and with a final document that was achieved by rough consensus and approved governance principles that were praised by most of the stakeholders (including human rights and other principles that are extremely valued by Civil Society). <br clear="none"><br clear="none">So let's try to transform NMI, which is still also a vague idea, into something that is concrete and useful for the advancement of IG and that fully respects the principles enshrined in the NETmundial declaration.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Flávio<br clear="none">(NCUC member and member of the Board of CGI.br)<br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div></div></div>
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