[governance] IGC

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 07/12/2009, at 1:18 PM, Avri Doria wrote:

> On 7 Dec 2009, at 05:15, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
>
>> It's for the same reason that I have been critical of the IGF for  
>> switching to a proprietary Web conferencing system, WebEx, over the  
>> open source one DimDim that was used last year.
>
> The decision of what software to use for remote communications has  
> been a host country decision.

Yes, but it shouldn't be.  It should be something into which we all  
have input, and it shouldn't change from year to year so that there is  
no possibility to form a continuing online community around the IGF.   
This is part of a list of recommendations I've made previously,  
encompassing institutional, technical and social improvements:

Institutional
-------------
* It should be possible to register as an IGF stakeholder without  
attending a meeting in person

* Rather than the IGF's plenary activity being limited to an annual  
meeting that meeting should cap a programme of online intersessional  
work

* The official Web site should be unified or closely integrated with  
community and host country resources

* Data from the official IGF Web site should be programmatically  
accessible and tagged for reuse:

   - User registration details
   - Calendar of events
   - Live transcripts
   - Dynamic coalitions
   - Stakeholder contributions

* Funding should be sought for online resources just as it is  
allocated for the annual meeting

Technical
---------
* Unified registration system for IGF annual meetings, sub-events and  
IGF online resources

* Rich ACL providing roles for Secretariat, Advisory Group, Dynamic  
Coalitions and others

* Registration details can be shared with community Web sites and  
events using OpenSocial API

* RSS+Dublin Core metadata engine to unify data from official and  
community sources

* Multi-modal online participation should be facilitated where  
possible (eg. email, Web, RSS)

* Unified set of themes for IGF sites (differentiating between  
official and community resources)

* Engine to gate live transcripts to IRC, Jabber, Second Life, etc

* Event information made available in iCalendar format

* All workshops and events to have access to integrated online fora

* Extension and unification of existing facilities for asynchronous  
and synchronous discussion

* Extension of existing facilities for collaborative editing (eg. add  
polling support)

Social
------
* Appointed volunteer rapporteurs to bridge online and offline fora

* Outreach programme to existing online communities of Internet users

* Capacity building for government stakeholders in the use of online  
resources

These are the kind of thing we could add into our recommendations on  
the structural reform of the IGF, though as nobody has responded to  
the questions I sent to the list I'm not sure that there's much  
interest in putting such recommendations forward.

-- 
JEREMY MALCOLM
Project Coordinator
CONSUMERS INTERNATIONAL-KL OFFICE
for Asia Pacific and the Middle East	

Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM
7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg
TTDI, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +60 3 7726 1599
Mob: +60 12 282 5895
Fax: +60 3 7726 8599
www.consumersinternational.org

Consumers International (CI) is the only independent global  
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115 countries, we are building a powerful international consumer  
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