[governance] Reminder: IGF workshop on a development agenda remote participation beginning

[William Drake]

For any night owls in North America or people elsewhere who are  
interested in development aspects of IG, a reminder that a remote  
participation enabled workshop is beginning in ten minutes.  Details  
and log on info below.

Bill

On Nov 10, 2009, at 5:33 PM, William Drake wrote:

> Hello,
>
> For people who will not be attending the IGF in Sharm el Sheikh,  
> there is now another remote participation opportunity, in addition  
> to the IGF main sessions and the GigaNet symposium, courtesy of  
> Derrick Cogburn and his Cotelco center.  This is the workshop I've  
> organized on, "Implementing the WSIS Principles: A Development  
> Agenda for Internet Governance."  Description and RP information are  
> below if the topic is of interest.
>
> Best,
>
> Bill
>
>
>
> http://tinyurl.com/devagenda-igf2009proposal
>
> Concise Description:
>
> The Tunis Agenda’s WSIS principles on Internet governance comprise  
> both procedural and substantive prescriptions. The former state that  
> governance should be conducted in a manner that is multilateral,  
> transparent, democratic, and fully inclusive of all stakeholders.  
> The latter state that governance should, inter alia, ensure an  
> equitable distribution of resources, facilitate access for all, and  
> be an essential element of a people-centred, inclusive, development- 
> oriented, and non-discriminatory information society. Taken  
> together, these latter principles suggest that Internet governance  
> should help to advance development objectives. In addition, the  
> Tunis Agenda mandates the IGF to, “Promote and assess, on an ongoing  
> basis, the embodiment of WSIS principles in Internet Governance  
> processes.” Implementing the substantive WSIS principles and this  
> element of the IGF mandate would require that stakeholders use the  
> collaborative opportunities afforded by the IGF to assess and  
> encourage governance mechanisms’ contributions to development. But  
> unfortunately, the development dimension often has been overlooked  
> in discussions of the WSIS principles and the IGF mandate.  
> Accordingly, this workshop will help redress the problem by  
> fostering a dialogue that takes seriously the concept of IG4D and by  
> exploring ways to promote its realization in both the IGF and  
> Internet governance mechanisms.
>
> More specifically, the workshop will consider the possible  
> establishment of a development agenda for Internet governance that  
> would facilitate implementation of the WSIS principles and the IGF  
> mandate. A development agenda is a holistic program of analysis and  
> action intended to mainstream development considerations into the  
> procedures and policy outputs of global governance mechanisms. While  
> there have been concerted efforts to pursue such agendas in the  
> multilateral institutions dealing with issues like international  
> trade and intellectual property, there has been no discussion of a  
> corresponding initiative for global Internet governance. With this  
> in mind, a workshop entitled “Toward a Development Agenda for  
> Internet Governance” was held at the IGF in Rio de Janeiro in 2007 http://tinyurl.com/devagenda-igf2007report 
> . Participants considered the general desirability of pursuing a  
> development agenda and agreed that a properly configured and  
> consensual initiative could help to promote an open, accessible,  
> diverse, and secure global Internet. To carry the discussion  
> forward, a second workshop entitled “A Development Agenda for  
> Internet Governance: From Principle to Practice” was held at the IGF  
> in Hyderabad in 2008 http://tinyurl.com/devagenda-igf2008report.  
> Here participants began to explore the possible substantive focus  
> and operational aspects of a development agenda, and inter alia  
> affirmed that the IGF is the most appropriate venue in which to  
> elaborate a cross-cutting and flexible agenda that could encourage  
> development-oriented enhancements within Internet governance  
> institutions.
>
> This third workshop in the series, to be held at the IGF in Sharm el  
> Sheikh, will build on the prior discussions and seek to progress  
> consensus building in three interrelated issue-areas:
>
> 1. The substantive focus of a development agenda, i.e. the key  
> institutions and issues (pertaining both to Internet infrastructures  
> and core resources and to their use for networked information,  
> communication, and commerce) to be assessed from a developmental  
> baseline so as to identify best practices and guidelines that  
> organizations could consider employing within their respective work  
> programs.
> 2. The procedural and institutional dimensions of an agenda, e.g.  
> assessing the transparency and inclusiveness of participation, per  
> the WSIS procedural principles, from the standpoint of people- 
> centered development.
> 3. The operational aspects of pursuing an agenda in the IGF and  
> beyond, e.g. the challenges of agenda setting, building a dynamic  
> coalition and/or other collaborations, consensually defining  
> assessment criteria and modalities, aggregating and presenting  
> information, interfacing with governance stakeholders and  
> institutions, providing feed-back mechanisms for input, etc.
>
>
> Institutional Co-Sponsors
>
> •	Government of Argentina (TBC)
> •	Association for Progressive Communications
> •	Centre for International Governance, Graduate Institute for  
> International Studies
> •	Council of Europe
> •	Diplo Foundation
> •	Institute for Internet Policy & Law, Beijing Normal University
> •	Internet Society of China
> •	Federal Office of Communication, Government of Switzerland
>
>
> Scheduling and Remote Participation
>
> The workshop will be held on Day 3 of the IGF--- Tuesday 17  
> November, from 9:30-12:30 in Room 3, Suez Canal.
>
> Remote participation in the workshop will be provided for by the  
> Center for Research on Collaboratories and Technology Enhanced  
> Learning Communities at Syracuse University, USA.
>
> Information on computer system requirements and use of the  
> webconferencing technology (Elluminate Live!) is available at:
> http://giganet.igloogroups.org/remotepart
>
> Remote participation during the workshop will be available at
> https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.10FC7E24BA568E8B69C7D3F0DDC21E
>
>
> Agenda
>
> I. Welcome and Overview by the organizer
>
> William J. Drake
> Senior Associate, Center for International Governance, Graduate  
> Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva,  
> Switzerland
>
>
> II. Panel Presentations
>
> Moderator: William J. Drake
>
> Speakers
>
> Anriette Esterhuysen
> Executive Director, Association for Progressive Communications,  
> South Africa
>
> Derrick Cogburn
> Associate Professor of International Relations, American University,  
> and Senior Scientist and Chief Research Director at the School of  
> Information Studies, Syracuse University, United States of America
>
> Olga Cavalli
> Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and representative to  
> the Governmental Advisor Committee of ICANN, Government of Argentina
>
> Christine Arida
> Director for Telecom Planning and Services, Egyptian National  
> Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA), Government of Egypt
>
> Alice Munyua
> Convenor, East African IGF and Kenya ICT Action Network,
> Communications Commission, Government of Kenya
>
> Hong Xue
> Professor of Law and Director of the Institute for Internet Policy &  
> Law, Beijing Normal University, China
>
> Fiona Alexander
> Associate Administrator (Head of Office) for International Affairs,
> National Telecommunications and Information Administration,  
> Department of Commerce, Government of the United States
>
> Elfa Yr Gylfadottir
> Adviser, Office of cultural affairs, Ministry of Education, Science  
> and Culture, Iceland
>
>
> III. Q&A with the Panelists
>
>
> IV. Group Discussion
>
> Possible elements of a development agenda:
>
> 1. Capacity building
> 2. Institutional/procedural issues
> 3. Substantive policy issues: Governance of infrastructures
> 4. Substantive policy issues: Governance of networked
> information, communication & commerce
>
> How to move forward with a DA:
>
> 5. In the IGF & global IG institutions
> 6. Research and capacity building
>
>
> V. Synthesis and Conclusion
>
> ***********************************************************
> William J. Drake
> Senior Associate
> Centre for International Governance
> Graduate Institute of International and
> Development Studies
> Geneva, Switzerland
> william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
> www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html
> ***********************************************************

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