[governance] Do we need a MAG?

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 28/05/2008, at 12:13 AM, George Sadowsky wrote:

> I'm glad Adam raised this point.  There was a set of people, working  
> in collaboration with Kieren and Avri and others (sorry, i don't  
> remember the exact names), on tools for remote participation.  we  
> had identified tools, and had an implementation and testing plan,  
> and then because of conflicts in a larger group, the entire effort  
> was dropped.
>
> The group continued under jeremy's leadership.  Jeremy, what has  
> happened to that dynamic coalition?  Have you made any progress?   
> The goal is an important one.

I had written a reply before seeing Ginger's, which is a good summary  
so I'll start again and limit myself to a few additional points.

First, she is spot on in her remarks that efforts on this front are  
fragmented and that the Secretariat has declined to usefully  
participate in them.  I think this bears out my comments to Adam in my  
last mail.  I had previously sought to have Ginger's group and the  
OCDC merge, which seemed the only sensible course to me, but there was  
resistance to this suggestion so I dropped it.

There is actually little to report from the OCDC; I think it's fair to  
say that it has been reduced to a shell waiting for other people to  
step up and contribute.  To be frank, when Kieren and I led it, 90% of  
the work was done by two people, and since he left there's been only  
me.  I've been disinclined to be very active myself due to the  
personal attacks this draws (hello George).

Having said that, there are a few ongoing avenues of work that don't  
overlap with what Ginger's group is doing (others that did overlap,  
eg. discussions with the Indian hosts, have been dropped).  The most  
significant of these is that a tender has been delivered to ECOSOC for  
the development of a portal for online communities for the WSIS follow- 
up process that could also be used by the IGF.

The most important thing about this initiative is that it would be  
*funded*.  Given that the IGF Secretariat will not fund community- 
developed online resources for the IGF, and that volunteer resources  
are limited, this is a vital factor.  ECOSOC planned to have made a  
decision by May, but due to internal factors this has been pushed  
back, and I'm not sure when it will now happen.

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm LLB (Hons) B Com
Internet and Open Source lawyer, IT consultant, actor
host -t NAPTR 1.0.8.0.3.1.2.9.8.1.6.e164.org|awk -F! '{print $3}'

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