[bestbits] Fw: [Igfregionals] Fw: [IGFmaglist] World Economic Forum - Davos 2018 "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World”

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 19/1/18 5:11 am, parminder wrote:
>
> I really did not know that IGF had its own agency to represent itself
> at other forums. Whom does it really represent? Because when you
> represent, you also speak for. For whom does the it speak, and on what
> basis? .. That is a mission creep which has been done without
> consulting or even declaring....
>

I actually agree with Parminder on this (yes, it does happen). Not that
I think that the IGF shouldn't be able to be represented in an official
way at other international institutions. On the contrary, I strongly
believe that it should be able to do so, and the fact that it hasn't
been able to effectively deliver messages to other institutions has been
one of its chief failings. I also don't blame Lynn St Amour for wanting
to do this.

But this is not the way to do it! The liaison between IGF and WEF (and
IETF, ICANN, OECD, WTO...) should be formally institutionalised in some
way, so that there is accountability and legitimacy. It shouldn't just
be casually announced that "I/the IGF have been invited...", as if the
distinction is immaterial.

I do disagree in one minor respect with Parminder and that's that, in my
reading of what has happened, it's not that the MAG has engineered this,
but rather that it's been done in a way that deliberately bypassed the
MAG, because the MAG is so dysfunctional that it stands in the way of
the evolution of the IGF, in this and other respects, and Lynn knows this.

But that doesn't make it right. If anything, this means the MAG needs to
be overhauled, not that it needs to be minimized and bypassed. I support
Parminder's call for the CS members of the MAG to hold it accountable
here and to call for the institution of a proper, transparent and
accountable process for the appointment of formal institutional liaisons
between the IGF and other bodies.

-- 
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 ::

Public key: https://www.eff.org/files/2016/11/27/key_jmalcolm.txt
PGP fingerprint: 75D2 4C0D 35EA EA2F 8CA8 8F79 4911 EC4A EDDF 1122

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