[governance] location

[Bertrand de La Chapelle]

Dear all,

On that topic, please make the distinction between the location of the
secretariat and the location of the activities of the Forum.

I support the initial core of the secretariat to be located in Geneva, for
all the reasons already mentionned by others.

But the activities of the Forum (annual meetings, possible thematic meetings
in betwee and/or working groups meetings if any) can be distributed in
various locations, *and should be*.

Furthermore, there is no reason to force a single location in the long term
for secretariat activities. I would support indeed the notion of a
"distributed secretariat" progressively built around a certain number of
locations, to take advantage of in-kind support (for instance secondment by
certain entities), address certain specific issues and facilitate
inclusiveness.

The notion of a single secretariat location and a single venue for
events points towards the creation of a totally traditionnal
inter-governmental institution. Is this what we really need/want ? How
long before we discuss the creation of "permanent representatives" to the
IGF, with income-tax free status and the respective perks ? And the special
building of the Forum ?

Please keep the IGF in the spirit of the Internet, as discussed in Malta :
flexible, networked, distributed and scalable.

Bertrand


On 2/14/06, William Drake <drake at hei.unige.ch> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: governance-bounces at lists.cpsr.org
> > [mailto:governance-bounces at lists.cpsr.org]On Behalf Of Jeanette Hofmann
>
> > Does the caucus have an opinion regarding the question of the
> > secretariat's location? (Perhaps I should raise this question in a
> > seperate email as it concerns the Geneva meeting later this week.)
>
> I'd bet it will need to be a UN seat, including because of the missions
> (case in point, as of last week anyway the US was planning on sending
> mission people rather than Washingtonians to the consultation
> tomorrow...).
> While I'd be happy to have more excuses to visit New York, this wouldn't
> make sense due to costs, the lack of relevant international orgs with
> which
> the forum will need to interact, and the difficulties many people
> experience
> getting in and out of the US these days.  Plus, related to the latter, I
> doubt many countries would be enthused about the US under any
> circumstances
> right now.   With similar considerations in mind, it would not make sense
> to
> put it in the other spots being loosely mentioned, e.g. Athens, Budapest,
> Addis, Nairobi, etc.   In comparison, the arguments against Geneva are not
> obvious.  If resources allow, there should also be geographically
> dispersed
> meetings, either the annuals or parallel regionals.
>
> More generally, given the complex way the politics are shaping up, I would
> suggest that we should be supportive of a UN-coordinated process building
> out from prior experience.  CS would lose in any other configuration.
>
> Best,
>
> Bill
>
>
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