[governance] Transparency (was Re: Program for IGC at IGF)

[Norbert Bollow]

Jeremy Malcolm <Jeremy at Malcolm.id.au> wrote:

> Still none the wiser.  Is anyone else disturbed about the lack of 
> transparency in the operations of the Secretariat and the MAG?

Yes, I also feel disturbed by this.

On the other hand, I believe that the people who work in the
IGF Secretariat and the MAG are already working at the limit
of what is humanly possible in order to get at least the
most critical aspects of their gigantic task done properly.

I think that the way forward with respect to achieving good
standards of transparency and accountability in internet
governance is to create a small "light-weight" internet
governance organization which should be in charge of only a
small number of tasks (tasks which are not currently really
worked on by any existing organization, and which are easier
than organizing an Internet Governance Forum), and set up all
processes of this new organization in exemplary ways to show
how accountable transparent multistakeholder processes can
be properly organized, and to learn what resources are
needed for that.

But it's simply not fair when a gigantic task is "dumped" on a
small number of people without giving them adequate financial
resources, and then these people get criticized for not being
totally transparent in their struggles to get things done as
well as they possibly can.

I agree that transparency in the operations of the Secretariat
and the MAG is lacking, but I don't see any individuals, groups
of people, or organizations where criticism concerning this
lack of transparency could be targeted with good conscience.

Already in the Consultations in Geneva in February there was
very little insistence on the importance of transparency.  As
long as requests and demands for transparency are not greatly
increased, genuine transparency cannot plausibly be expected
to be provided, except if we who care about transparency work
together to create a little internet governance organization
which does whatever it does in a genuinely transparent manner.

Greetings,
Norbert.


-- 
Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch>                       http://Norbert.ch
President of the Swiss Internet User Group SIUG        http://SIUG.ch
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