Summary of ways to participate in Best Bits

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 17/10/12 10:55, parminder wrote:
> My comments were wholly addressed to the track two activity. I am not
> sure what is the sudden hurry to pull out from a hat some process
> principles for IG in this compressed time, when the issue is rather
> contentious and requires to be given all the time and attention it needs.

Actually it was one year ago, at the last IGF, that some of us on this
list first committed to produce such a set of civil society principles,
and to do so by this year's IGF.  So it didn't start off in a rush,
though it may have ended up rather that way.  But by starting from what
is already there (whether it be the IRP principles as you prefer, or the
APC/CoE document as Wolfgang does, or even the Declaration of Internet
Freedom as some others may - nothing is yet set in stone), there is
still no reason for the outcome to be a rush job.

> We cant selectively chose some principles that buttress certain
> governance orders and not other kinds. We will need to go really deep,
> and go the whole hog.

That would be nice.  But the raison d'être of Best Bits is to bring
together a more diverse group (at least in terms of civil society
participants) than any of those that have collaborated on any of the
existing individual documents referenced, and none of those have gone
the whole hog to your satisfaction.  So this is a point tending against
the document being completely comprehensive, because it would weaken
support for it too much.  It's not a new dilemma, but remains a real one.

Balancing this (and an equally deliberate choice in designing this
event), there will be no Best Bits declaration - there will be a
document *at *Best Bits that individual groups can sign on to, but
nobody will be "forced" to do so.  This is factor that will allow us to
produce stronger documents than we otherwise might, because we will only
need to reach a rough consensus, not a full one.  Anyone who isn't
comfortable with a document can easily pull out from it.

-- 

*Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers*
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