[bestbits] Best Bits meeting plans for the 2013 IGF

[Norbert Bollow]

Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:

> pointing to my initial and then Anita's definitive
> interventions at the WSIS +10 plenaries there are multiple issues
> arising around IS and including some very significant interweaving
> with IG issues that nobody seems to be very interested in
> addressing--but they are one's which I think we have a responsibility
> to address and an opportunity to take hold of and particularly
> towards and in the context of WSIS +10 in 2015 (and the increasingly
> inter-linked MDG's 15> and the establishment of a new round of
> Sustainable Development goals (not to speak of the Climate Change
> issues)).

Good point. It will certainly be worthwhile to devote some time at the
Best Bits meeting at Bali to discuss how these important issues can be
effectively put on the agenda of the discussions that matter.

> And particularly I don't think that we should allow WSIS +10 to
> disappear off the policy radar (as many Developed Countries appear
> quite anxious to ensure)--given the historical and continuing role
> that the WSIS process played in the development of CS in this area
> and the way in which it allows our IG focussed IGC/BB and related
> activities to link into much broader and more diverse constituencies.

Agreed.

Furthermore, it is important to get civil society actors from outside
the Internet governance community more involved. Maybe, in addition to
addressing these matters at the Best Bits meeting in Bali, we need to
think about organizing a pre-event in the spirit of Best Bits (but
maybe with a different name corresponding to a less technology-centered
focus) to an international event where the chances are optimal for
effectively introducing the family of issues that you're thinking about
into the mainstream of discourse of international policy shaping. 

> I think that we would be very remiss not to spend some time reviewing
> these "IS" issues and strategizing on how to move these forward
> alongside and particularly as part of the increasingly visible and
> significant IG processes -- including within the IGF but also toward
> WSIS +10 and beyond.

+1

Greetings,
Norbert