[bestbits] Whether to participate in NETmundial Initiative - RFC

[Jeremy Malcolm]

I would like to thank everyone for their very useful feedback about the
NETmundial Initiative (NMI).  It cannot have escaped anyone's attention
that there are very divergent views on civil society's participation in
the Initiative.

Since there is a self-nomination process in place on the NMI website,
some members of civil society who are interested will use it (and some
already have).  But in my view it would be wrong for them to do so if
the criticisms that others have made were not passed along, and I think
the nominees will have a responsibility to help ensure that these are
addressed.  It was good to read from our CGI.br friends that this is
also a priority condition of their participation.

As as concerns Best Bits and more particularly the Civil Society
Coordination Group that we are part of, there is not strong enough
support for us to run our own nomination process, and it would be
redundant to do so.  However, what the CSCG can do is to advise the
organisers which candidates, from amongst those who self-nominated
through its process, should be selected - rather than allowing the
organisers to cherry-pick.  In doing that, a very strong message about
our concerns can also be passed back to them for action.

The CSCG is deliberating upon this now, but based on the discussions on
this list and the messages given both in favour and against
participation, the most broadly acceptable option seems for us to
support that compromise.  But let's see whether the other members of the
Civil Society Coordination Group (besides JNC) agree on that - if not,
we will not participate even to the extent of recommending candidates
who have self-nominated. Either way, we should know by tomorrow and I
will write back to this list then with more news then.

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Global Policy Analyst
Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://eff.org
jmalcolm at eff.org

Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161

:: Defending Your Rights in the Digital World ::


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