[governance] Linking process to themes

[Bertrand de La Chapelle]

Milton,

As I said in a previous response to Bill, I agree the capacity to
form Working groups - or maybe initially Discussion Groups or Interest
groups - is what will make the difference between the IGF as a mere annual
get-together and it being a real, useful process.

I suggest this is an issue that could be discussed more thoroughly *in the
mmwg* in the perspective of the preparation of the May meeting, to suggest
preliminary rules for the formation of such groups.

Two suggestions in that context for the meeting in Athens :
- *BoF (Birds of a Feather") meetings* : each annual event, including the
IGF in Athens should allow some time, as suggested by Bill, for open
parallel sessions more or less formal, initiated by stakeholders according
to the concept of BoF Meetings used in many professional conferences and the
IETF ("Birds of a Feather" meetings are explained here :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BoF). The space where the Athens meeting will
take place should therefore have a number of small rooms available that
could be reserved by people to hold such meetings. This could actually form
an important *capacity-building component of the IGF* and could be presented
as such, if background information is posted online for people to understand
the various dimensions of the issue.
- A *Poster Session* *for issues not retained on the Agenda of the first IGF
* : during the February consultations, I suggested (see point 11 in my
intervention at :
http://www.intgovforum.org/contributions/Contribution_BPC_Feb_17_06%5B1%5D.pdf)
:
*

11) A poster session in Athens for issues not retained at this first annual
meeting
*During the Athens meeting, stakeholders who submitted issues not retained
for the main thematic sessions would be given the opportunity to make short
3-5 minutes interventions in a special poster session of 2 hours in order to
further feed the agenda-setting process. This innovative session (in a
format already implemented in the Tokyo regional conference in 2003) element
is useful to introduce for two reasons:
- to keep engaged actors who care about a theme that was not retained and
would like to see it taken into account in the future
- to facilitate the early identification of emerging themes, in accordance
with the very mandate (para 72 of the Tunis Agenda) of the IGF

This poster session concept (that can also include the reporting of
parallel sessions) is very important to guarantee that even if there is a
limit on the number of issues addressed in formal thematic sessions in
Athens (I still support 4- 6 rather than 3), other issues are not prevented
from being at least mentionned during the first event.

Ideally, this Poster Session would take place the last day in the morning
for instance to allow some reporting on the BoF sessions described above and
the announcements related to the setting up of bottom-up Interest/Discussion
Groups for the period post-Athens.

Best

Bertrand



On 3/25/06, Milton Mueller <mueller at syr.edu> wrote:
>
>
> >>> "William Drake" <drake at hei.unige.ch> 3/24/2006 1:54:54 AM >>>
> >So process and substance demands are intrinsically linked.
> >If we're going to send them multiple topical suggestions and
> >say these are all important to us, I think we should also a) call
> > for at least one and maybe two days in Athens being devoted
> >to parallel workshops, any outputs of which could then
> >be brought into the plenary sessions; and b) an agreement that,
> >per MMWG, topical working groups can be formed bottom-up,
> >formally linked to the IGF, work virtually, and present any
> >outputs and recommendations at Rio.  Where
> >there's consensus, the Athens workshops could serve as the
> >boot-up moment for the creation of such groups.
>
> Drake's comments are very important and on point, I endorse them and hope
> that everyone here follows this path.
>
> Dr. Milton Mueller
> Syracuse University School of Information Studies
> http://www.digital-convergence.org
> http://www.internetgovernance.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> governance mailing list
> governance at lists.cpsr.org
> https://ssl.cpsr.org/mailman/listinfo/governance
>
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