[governance] Discussing the Agenda for Rio in Geneva

[Milton Mueller]

Carlos's message is worth discussing seriously. I have done him the
favor of changing the header. 

Dr. Milton Mueller
Syracuse University School of Information Studies
http://www.digital-convergence.org
http://www.internetgovernance.org

>>> ca at rits.org.br 02/08/07 8:16 PM >>>
In the meantime, a group of countries tries to get organized to insist 
that the IGF should be mainly a space for ICANN bashing and/or 
replacement, while other groups are preparing to propose that the main
topics in Rio should be exactly the same as in Athens. A majority
(Brazil not included) of GRULAC (the Latin American and Caribbean
government group at the UN) members, for example, insist the agenda for
Rio should be exactly as it was for Athens -- that generic, almost
useless group of four topics: open standards, access, security,
diversity... the weather, soccer, who won the lotto... If we continue
this trend, we better turn IGF into an international old-timers' chat
space (sponsored by the UN!) like the Brazilian Academy of Letters or
some other sleepy, tea-soaked thing -- this way we would not need to
worry about it anymore.

Several post-Athens contributions are worried about format as well as
content. My view is that we need a process in each meeting in which we
arrive at thematic and procedural resolutions. Plenaries "moderated" (I
prefer to say "manipulated") by professional TV hosts do not work well,
and even scare some of the panelists (specially some of those whose
native idiom is not English). We need thematic specialists as
moderators, not "crowd handling" specialists or showmen -- it seemed the
purpose here was to keep true debate dissolved into generalities.

In my view, we main focus should be on thematic workshops with the goal
of presenting a resolution proposal in the final plenary -- the main
meetings would be shorter and would work just as "seeds" for the
workshops. These would constitute the official set of recommendations
from IGF.

fraternal regards

--c.a.


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