[governance] IGC review

[Parminder]

Hi everyone

 

>Something tells me that it is the right time for all of us – at least those
of us who care enough about this group – to take up a comprehensive review
of the IGC

 

That something that prompted me to call for a comprehensive IGC review also
whispered in my ears not to be surprised if no one responded :-). 

 

Well, the dose of medicine may have been too much for the present precarious
state of the patient, but I do not think we have an alternative. We need to
do this sooner or later. And therefore this thread will be kept open, and I
may from time to time urge members to get on with this exercise. I have
noticed that on this elist there are certain undefined factors – of timing
and/ or content – that suddenly provoke some very energetic response and
broad involvement. So we will wait for those moments in the context this
important task
. :-) 

 

I have two offlist responses on what may be done to make the group more
active in terms of its advocacy mandate, elements of which I will share with
the list in the coming time. 

 

Meanwhile, I have a proposal. This is in context of the fact that

 

 

1.	As stated, we urgently need to build/ strengthen the active advocacy
component of this group, which is also required as per its charter
(http://www.igcaucus.org/IGC-charter_final-061014.html) 

 

 

2.	At Rio IGF I met some civil society members interested in IG issues,
and willing to be actively involved in global CS advocacy on progressive
directions in IG, who were not members of the IGC. Most did not know of its
existence.  

 

 The IGC charter also mandates the group to make active efforts of outreach
to the wider civil society constituency. I solicit both advice and action by
the members of this group in this direction. What I propose at this point is
to write the following email to all those on the IGF, Rio, participants list
that are from civil society, and appear likely to be interested. 

 

“Dear 

 

 

This email is from the Co-Coordinator of the Civil Society Internet
Governance Caucus (IGC). IGC is a group of civil society actors who are
interested in IG issues, and wish ‘to promote global public interest
objectives in Internet governance policy making’ (to quote the charter of
the group which may be seen at
http://www.igcaucus.org/IGC-charter_final-061014.html).

 

Your participation at the IGF Rio indicates that you may be interested in
associating with such a group. We are especially trying to reach out to such
individuals who have not merely an academic interest in IG but are
interested in pursuing a relatively active advocacy agenda in this area.
Issues like openness of the Internet, freedom of expression, privacy,
Internet and development and IPR versus public domain on the Internet are
some important Internet policy areas which require civil society engagement
at a global level.  A civil society group like the IGC which conducts most
of its activities online, supported with some crucial interventions in
face-to-face meetings on IG issues, provides a useful forum for individuals
who may be differently situated in terms of availability of time and other
resources, but are nonetheless interested in impacting Internet policy
making. 

 

IGC mailing list is also one of the most active forums of informed
discussions on IG issues with very diverse viewpoints. Participation in
these discussions may help you understand and shape civil society
perspectives on IG. 

 

If you are interested in joining the group, at the first level you may
subscribe to the IGC mailing list using the web interface at
http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/subscribe/governance . In addition, if you are
willing to subscribe to the IGC charter
(http://www.igcaucus.org/IGC-charter_final-061014.html ) please reply to
this email with such indication, and we will add your name to the list of
individuals who have subscribed to the IGC charter.

 

Thanks
.. “ 

 

I am not sure if many will respond but we will be fulfilling one of the
tasks mandated to us by the charter, and can also hope to get some new
energy into IGC. 

 

If any member has any comments to offer on the above please do it over the
next week. 

 

 

Parminder 

 

  _____  

From: Parminder [mailto:parminder at itforchange.net] 
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 8:21 PM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Subject: [governance] IGC review

 

IGC members,

 

Something tells me that it is the right time for all of us – at least those
of us who care enough about this group – to take up a comprehensive review
of the IGC in a back-to-basics/ bare-all spirit. We need to examine what we
are here for, how well we are doing it, and which direction should we go
from here. We did very briefly try some such review during the face-to-face
IGC meeting at Rio, but the time was too short for anything worthwhile, and
the participants’ minds and energies were mostly occupied with what was
happening in the IGF. However some concrete suggestions did come up, and I
as a co-coordinator promised to initiate a discussion on the IGC email list
on rethinking/ restructuring IGC.

 

We all can see that there is a certain limbo that this group is at present
caught in. Apart from some continued high quality discussions there appears
to be not much will and/or energy vis-à-vis an activist advocacy role in
this group, which is one of its primary mandate as per the charter adopted
in 2005 ( pl see http://www.igcaucus.org/IGC-charter_final-061014.html ).
For instance, we are not making much progress towards developing a caucus
position for the very important Feb. consultations for the IGF. I had given
out a call seeking volunteers for the position of co-coordinator, and I have
only received one name till now.  

 

Many members who had earlier been very involved in active advocacy kind of
roles seem to have reduced their involvement and many other members who are
very involved in discussions on this list seem to either not commit
themselves to participating in activist roles of developing common positions
etc, or they are unable yet to figure out the best way to do this.  And I
think it is a good time to find out the reasons for this situation in  a
constructive spirit of moving forward with a greater clarity of what is the
best role for this group, and how can that be done most effectively. Such an
exercise will help people shape their involvement (or, well, probably
withdrawal of involvement) in this group. 

 

This in my opinion should be a time for all of us to come out clearly with
how we see this group, and where do we want to take it from here. While this
process may necessarily mean that many contentions would come out in the
open, and we will try to figure out what best can we do about them, we hope
that sufficient amount of civility is maintained in this process. This
doesn’t mean we need to necessarily moderate our views – I think, for a
start, we need some very open and honest discussion here – but only that we
do not get personal and abusive. 

 

While I will come out with my personal views on this subject separately, in
order to set the ball rolling I will mention some of my ‘more neutral’
viewpoints. I think that the politics of technologies (or ICTs) are
impacting our societies in a major way, and unfortunately there is great
lack of awareness (and, consequently, involvement) of the public at large
about how the manner of development of these technologies may underlie the
very shaping of our societies. IGC is one of few public interest groups at
the global level that is active in this very important area. Lack of public
interest advocacy and involvement, which is what our inactivity/ abdication
will contribute to, will make for dominant interests shaping the world in
manner that serves their interests even more. All of us who fear this
possibility, while also seeing the opportunity in the new technologies for a
freer as well as a more equal and just world, and have some knowledge,
expertise and ‘positions/ connections/ linkages’ in this area, should
sincerely explore how best can we further the public interest through this
group. On the process side, IGC also represents a unique experiment in
global civil society organization, and it is up to us to prove that such new
networked forms of civil society organization and advocacy can be
successful. 

 

Recent emails by Garth and Dan, among others, do discuss some of the issues
mentioned above. Hopefully we can have some involved discussions in the next
few weeks on these issues which may help us focus and structure IGC more
purposefully.  

 

Parminder 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20080124/0fc414a2/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed...
Name: message-footer.txt
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20080124/0fc414a2/attachment.txt>