[governance] Re : New WSIS Civil Society Working Group on Information Networks Governance

[Meryem Marzouki]

Hi,

I confess I asked to be subscribed to this new mailing list, "pour  
voir" as we say in French (to see what happens), as a start. I also  
confess that I must have passed the (unclear) test, as I've been  
subscribed:)

However,

Le 12 sept. 07 à 00:48, Dr. Francis MUGUET a écrit :

(Excerpt from www.wsis-gov.org homepage)
> Within the overall framework of the implementation of the  
> recommendations of the World Summit on the Information Society, it  
> appears that political and ethical standards demand the formation  
> of a Civil Society working group. The "Civil Society" must be  
> clarified as a group of people sharing such core values as  
> openness, transparency, public interest, diversity, inclusion and a  
> sincere concern for sustainable development, in bridging the  
> digital divide.

I'm always puzzled by such assumption and such understanding. We all  
know that "civil society" is a rather fuzzy notion, but why on earth  
this so-called civil society should (1) be homogeneous and (2) show  
such particular values? Are they inherent to civil society? Is civil  
society intrinsically "good"? Has history shown, since first  
references to the civil society concept, any indication that this is  
actually true?

What you are tentatively defining - in the IGF context - is not the  
"civil society". It's rather a subset of people and groups and - why  
not - institutions that are like-minded, sharing this particular  
values, i.e. a given vision in this context. In that sense, I agree  
with this being the necessary pre-condition to form a caucus in the  
true meaning of the word, as this IGC list is more like a plenary  
list for interested parties in IG issues, the great majority of them  
belonging to CS, but not necessarily sharing a common vision of these  
issues. Note that forming a caucus in this sense doesn't prevent to  
discuss with others, from civil society or from other segments.
Thus, apart from its accompanying unappropriate comments and  
insinuations, the creation of this new list is a good initiative in  
my opinion, but let's see what happens and how it turns out. Even  
with the best intentions, it's always difficult anyway to get a spin- 
off list started and working well. Also, in terms of substance,  
sharing the values you indicated above doesn't mean considering the  
Tunis Agenda as the holy bible (speaking of cultural diversity, feel  
free to replace bible by your favorite document, and holy by your  
favorite adjective:)). And doesn't mean either sharing Louis and  
Francis' views on multistakeholderism, bureau or whatever structure.  
Finally, it's obvious for me that the new list - and maybe other to  
be created later - could only be a specific complement of the  
general, plenary IG list, which remains this IGC list. There is  
certainly no mutually exclusive choice to be made here.

> "Civil Society" shall not be defined “subtractively” as a group of  
> people who neither belong to the government nor business sectors.

I don't see any other common understanding of it. This is precisely  
the reason why this multistakeholderism means nothing and is  
currently rather working towards softening, when not silencing,  
dissenting voices.

> In this view, "Civil Society" must be differentiated from the  
> "Internet Community", which is increasingly dominated by the  
> technico-industrial complex that manages critical internet resources.

The "Internet Community" is not the only one in this case.. And, BTW,  
the actual differentiation between "civil society" and "Internet  
community" has rather served, as for now, the interest of the  
"internet community".

Best,
Meryem

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