[bestbits] Report from the BR meeting local organizing group - Dec 2013

[parminder]

Dear Carlos.

Thanks for this report....

Apparently, this meeting of the local organising group (LOG) has moved 
the pieces around quite a bit, and I now see the 'Brazil meeting' 
shaping up in a rather different manner than what it seemed to be to 
begin with....

Most of us saw it basically as a meeting with the Brazilians - initially 
the government and then the CGI.Br - as the convening 'neutral' trusted 
party, which would of course take along all stakeholders and so on.... 
But now for the first time I see the co-ownership of the meeting 
beginning to split almost equally between the Brazilians and the  I* group.

ICANN now co chairs the 'Brazil meeting' - which is the first time I 
hear such a thing, although I have not been following discussions in the 
last few weeks and may be wrong. One is not sure why this was found 
necessary. So, it is no longer a Brazil meeting, it is Brazil-ICANN 
meeting on the 'Future of ......', right?. .. (BTW what happens to the 
meme of equal footing! Why are some 'stakeholders' continually more 
equal and than the others).

Even more surprising is the formal role vis a vis the representation of, 
or at least as the platform for, all non gov groups that is now clearly 
conferred on 1Net, an entity about which no one knows what it is, really 
- who controls it, what is it supposed to do and so on.... Civil society 
groups had on many occasions, including through formal representation, 
conveyed to the Brazilians that they are not looking forward to be 
represented through 1Net, or even have their communication routed 
through it, ..... Civil society formally made known the names of 4 
liaison persons for routing communication to them..

So, while anointing 1Net as 'the' non gov platform for the 'Brazil 
meeting', simultaneously clear claims and requests from civil society 
were completely ignored. Was it put forward by anyone during the LOG 
meeting that such has been the civil society stand (against 1Net 
mediation) . And if it had indeed been put forward, what was the 
response of the LOG, and what justifications was provided for its 
decision. Civil society must be told all about it. It is not willing to 
be taken for granted, and play the B team to the powerful groups.... We 
have very high hopes from the Brazil meeting, and the best way to 
nurture them would be by treating civil society's decisions and requests 
with due respect, and so on...

I simply do not yet know what 1Net is...As I have often said, I find it 
very useful as a cross-stakeholder groups discussion space... Some of us 
did not take much interest in nomination to 1Net's coordination 
committee because one really had no idea what it was to do.... We were 
told that the coordination committee would decide what 1Net would do. 
But now a lot seems to be decided for it already. Who is it pushing 
1Net, who are such powerful players behind it that what looked like a 
mere discussion list gets suddenly conferred with such a powerful role. 
We never suspected before those nominations to its coordination 
committee that 1Net would become 'the' non gov stakeholders platform for 
the Brazil meeting, and would play such a central formal role in it.... 
This decision, especially the manner of taking it -  is  a major 
disappointment. It is in my opinion, a decision taken without good 
justification, and in disregard of common civil society positions 
communicated to the LOG.

Hope to get more information on these issues...

Best, parminder


On Saturday 21 December 2013 10:06 PM, Carlos A. Afonso wrote:
> Hi people,
>
> This is my quick summary of yesterday's meeting of the local organizing
> group (LOG) for the BR meeting. This summary is basically oriented to
> civil society but may be useful to all stakeholders. Covers basically
> the structure of the committees and includes some other useful info.
>
> I do hope it answers several of the many questions we are receiving.
>
> fraternal regards
>
> --c.a.
>
> ================================
>
> 1. Co-chairs of the BR Meeting
>
> This is a no-brainer: the BR Meeting will be chaired by Virgilio Almeida
> (current chair of CGI.br, and member of Brazil's Ministry of Science,
> Technology and Innovation), and Fadi Chehadé.
>
> 2. High Level Multistakeholder Committee
>
> The HLMC will be responsible for overseeing the political articulations
> and for encouraging the participation of the international community.
>
> It will be composed of government representatives of 12 countries
> (precise list still being established by the BR government) plus 12
> non-govs, and two representatives of UN agencies to be chosen by the
> UNSG. The 12 non-govs include four of each non-gov stakeholder (civil
> society, academia/techies, private sector). All of the non-gov, non-UN
> stakeholders' names will be brought to the LOG by 1Net. So the HLC will
> be composed of 26 people.
>
> The HLMC will have four co-chairs, keeping the multistakeholder balance.
> One of the co-chairs will be Brazil's Minister of Communications Paulo
> Bernardo.
>
> So civil society needs to indicate to 1Net Steering Committee four
> high-level reps as soon as possible.
>
> 3. Executive Multistakeholder Committee
>
> The EMC will be responsible for organizing the event, including the
> discussion and implementation of the agenda, and the selection of the
> participants and the various stakeholders' proposals. The crucial part
> of the preparation process resides here, in close coordination with the
> Logistics Committee, so people selected for the EMC ought to make
> themselves readily available for this challenge.
>
> The LOG has already selected the eight Brazilian members of the EMC.
> There will be four co-chairs as well, and names already appointed are
> Demi Getschko (CEO of NIC.br) and Raúl Echeberría (to be confirmed, CEO
> of LACNIC). A representative of an international agency will be
> appointed as well (by the coordinating body of the UN agencies) to
> participate.
>
> Like the HLMC, non-gov, non-UN members of the EMC will be brought to the
> LOG by 1Net.
>
> For the EMC civil society needs to indicate to 1Net Steering Committee
> two names as soon as possible.
>
> 4. Logistics and Organizational Committee
> 		
> The LOC will be co-chaired by Hartmut Glaser, executive secretary of
> CGI.br with proven expertise in coordinating the organization of
> national and international events. Another co-chair will be indicated by
> 1Net.
>
> 5. Government Advisory Committee
>
> This is in the hands of the BR government who acts as a facilitator and
> coordinator. Two co-chairs will be indicated. This committee will be
> open to any government who wishes to act in an advisory capacity.
>
> 6. Funding
>
> NIC.br will cover about 50% of the meeting's overall costs. The balance
> will be share by international participants/sponsors. Contributions from
> ICANN and ISOC are expected.
>
> 7. Participation
>
> The meeting is to be held at Hotel Transamérica, in São Paulo, fairly
> close to NIC.br headquarters (see attached map). The basic distribution
> of participants is envisioned approximately as:
>
> 450 from govs
> 500-550 from non-gov, non-UN stakeholders
> 100 journalists
> 50 IGOs/UN reps
>
> Inviting participants, or receiving and approving participation
> requests, is one of the tasks of the EMC.
>
> 8. Expected outcomes as success indicators
>
> - Official launching of a review process of the global IG frameworks/models;
>
> - Development of a set of universally acceptable core of principles for
> global IG;
>
> - Tentative draft of a global IG model.
>
> My personal comment: these ambitious outcomes of course involve a lot of
> preparatory process work, especially by the Executive Committee. This is
> why we need to conclude the nominations asap in order to start the real
> work towards the meeting.
>
>

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