[governance] individuals

[Vittorio Bertola]

Bret Fausett ha scritto:
> This was the only reason I attended the consultation in Geneva: to try to
> reserve a seat at the table for individuals. In my intervention, I noted
> that I was not from any government, not affiliated with any NGO and not part
> of any official civil society organization. I asked that that the IGF always
> welcome individuals with something to contribute. I was impressed that Disai,
> Kummer and a handful of individual from governments all welcomed me and said
> it was indeed their intention to keep the IGF open to individual 
> participation.

Actually, I purposedly avoided to list any affiliation on the 
application form (actually I didn't have any suitable one, except 
"former WGIG member", which was actually used in some past occasions). 
When I got to Geneva, my badge said "Italian civil society" - I guess 
they still have to fill up the field in the form with something.

In the past, I tried to submit some documents as individual for 
PrepCom-3, and they were rejected. However, I resubmitted the same 
documents for the Geneva consultations, and they were accepted without 
problems, even if they were published on the website at the very end of 
the list (contributions are still sorted according to the "importance" 
of submitters, governments first). I think that, in the present 
situation, it depends on who you are talking to.

On another point of yours:

> Rather than finding a way to weigh NGOs/individuals, I'd rather articulate a
> set of principles by which we can measure whether their contributions
> benefit the public interest. In other words, can we measure the merit of the
> contributions rather than the size and legitimacy of the contribitor?

It depends on what you are seeking measurements for. If it needs to be a 
threshold for admission, then I think that you should just keep it open 
for everyone, and, as you pointed out, even encourage new people to 
participate. Otherwise (e.g. if you want to weigh people, for example to 
select representatives) I think that each member will do a personal 
evaluation, and we sum it up by voting.
-- 
vb.             [Vittorio Bertola - v.bertola [a] bertola.eu.org]<-----
http://bertola.eu.org/  <- Prima o poi...
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