[governance] Social Reporting Lab at IGF 09

[Jovan Kurbalija]

Diplo-IKME Social Reporting Lab at Internet Governance Forum 2009
Information management and knowledge sharing in global policy processes


Have you ever thought about the many different types of information and
knowledge gathered, exchanged and taken home from an international policy
conference?

There are so many different information sources, formats and channels:
official documents, presentations, policy papers, reports; and now also
instant photographs, video recordings, blog posts and short comments (such
as Twitter) on the Internet. There are formal sessions, but also corridor
conversations, side-meetings in restaurants and bars; formal statements and
personal opinions. There is specialist and scientific knowledge and there
are the realities of those who will live with the policies. How does this
diverse information and knowledge landscape influence global policy
processes? Can more holistic reporting help make policy processes more
accessible and more inclusive?
 
Diplo <http://www.diplomacy.edu/>  and IKM Emergent
<http://www.ikmemergent.net/>  are organising a ³social reporting lab² at
this year's Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting in Egypt, with the aim
to explore how multiple knowledges relevant to policy processes can be
communicated - with help from online communities and the new Internet tools
known as the social web. Together with other similar initiatives the ³lab²
will help make the Forum more accessible and inclusive.
 
The IGF meetings belong to a new generation of international conferences,
involving a much wider variety of participants from governments, civil
society and businesses. Its operational procedures are relatively informal
and pragmatic. It creates a multidisciplinary policy space involving people
from a wide variety of professions, including diplomats, computer
specialists, academics and business people. The issues discussed at the IGF
affect a significant and constantly growing part of the global population
and may determine the way a number of developmental themes,T ranging from
education to equitable trade, develop in the future. As such, this is a
particularly good environment for examining the potential of social
reporting in a policy process.
 
Social reporting is not new. It's already happening at international
meetings worldwide, co-created by thousands of people around the world.
However, the Diplo-IKME lab introduces some new reporting objectives and
represents an experiment in information and knowledge sharing. Some of the
objectives are: 

- to help participants new to the social web begin to engage using available
tools;
- to identify some of the multiple knowledges that exist in the policy
space; 
- to create ³mashups² (a mix of multiple information streams) that
demonstrate these multiple  knowledges;
- to highlight developmental aspects of the IGF;
- to engage youth in the policy process
- to support remote participation of those who cannot attend the event in
person.
 
The social reporting lab will create a ³cloud² of blogs, Twitter feeds,
video interviews and other forms of online expression. The lab relies on a
diverse team of participants from different professional, cultural,
geographic and generational backgrounds, including youth groups and Diplo
alumni. Remotely connected participants will also contribute and engage with
the reporting and the online dialogue. To learn more about the Diplo-IKME
lab visit http://www.diplointernetgovernance.org/ or contact us at
diplo-ikme at diplomacy.edu.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20091115/cb716462/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance