[governance] Remote Participation

Sat Feb 18 13:45:36 EST 2012

Hey all,

A few thoughts:

*On the equity of remote participation:*
Remote Participation will always be different, but it need not be inferior,
to face-to-face participation, providing we advocate for the right sorts of
processes. For example, being able to follow on a transcript, or having the
birds-eye view of multiple sessions that RP can bring, can give a
participant a different set of perspectives, and the ability to formulate a
strong written intervention into a session.

Where RP can fall down is when, as others have said, the meeting process
doesn't adequately recognise it. We do need to build more resilient RP
tools that can cope with glitches, but also to have more resilient workshop
processes, so that, for example, before any decisions are made, or any
elements of a session closed, there is a quick recap of discussions, and an
explicit turn to read out RP contributions. Just as we've had 'rules or
order' for committee meetings, and there have been proposals in the past
for 'rules of order' for online dialogues and meetings, we need to
articulate the rules for a blended face-to-face and RP meeting. We should
also be encouraging in-person participants to use the same online
discussion spaces as RPs, so that even if words are not spoken in the room,
they can still influence many of those present in the face-to-face meeting.

Roland's mention of assistants highlights another useful potential of RP,
where remote communities can support their in-person representative. I'm
reminded of some of the youth delegations at IGF11 who were using MSN to
informally network with colleagues watching on the webcast and who were
helping out with providing background information, or sourcing ideas for
how to input into sessions.

Perhaps it would be useful for us to articulate and describe some detailed
narratives of how an ideal meeting involving RP as an equal element would
look?

*Practically moving forward: some suggestions:*

- Ginger: would it be useful to remind people of how to get involved in the
Remote Participation Working Group (RPWG). I'd be happy to put more time to
this - but right now, finding the latest information on how to get involved
is tricky (RPWG seems to have a mix of older websites and Facebook pages,
so it's not clear where to get involved...)

- Can we gather the evidence on where RP has worked; and where it hasn't -
to present a clear evidence-based account to IGF of the shortcomings. E.g.
a list of all the meetings that have taken place over the last three years,
whether RP has been on offer, who has provided it and with what resources,
and whether it has worked well or not. A simple etherpad or Google
Spreadsheet should allow us to collect this information...

- Can we identify clearly the different levels of resource that RP might
need to be put on a solid foundation? From the resources needed for a
volunteer-led and make-do RP model, to gold-standard RP where there are the
resources to provide fully supported technical platforms with failsafes to
avoid glitches getting in the way, to provide proper training to moderators
and chairs of sessions, to engage with remote hubs, and to manage the
process? It seems to me that being clear about the resources needed would
help in advocating for support.

- Michael: you've mentioned various CI writings on RP. Is there a good
resource list on experiences of RP anywhere? Would putting together a small
collection of resources and papers also be useful for advocacy for better
RP platforms and processes?

All the best

Tim

On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Roland Perry <
roland at internetpolicyagency.com> wrote:

> In message <CALCecM9a5M0kAtC1LF9Ak=BuMhBP**dA7nJTFyVqAt345ZtNZEpw at mail.**
> gmail.com <BuMhBPdA7nJTFyVqAt345ZtNZEpw at mail.gmail.com>>, at 06:35:00 on
> Sat, 18 Feb 2012, Ginger Paque <gpaque at gmail.com> writes
>
>  Why have we, as civil society and the IGC, been so ineffective at
>> developing and achieving implementation of inclusion and effective
>> remote participation? After several years, why is RP not now an
>> integral part of all IG and IGF policy processes?
>>
>
> For the inter-sessional planning meetings, because they are still
> primarily institutionalised into the Geneva landscape (which for Europeans
> is at least better than having to go through the same exercise in New York).
>
> The only way this can be broken is for such meetings (and indeed similar
> non-UN meetings, this is not a criticism aimed particularly at DESA) to
> grind to a halt whenever there's a glitch in the remote participation, and
> not continue until the remote participation has been fixed.
>
> Of course, that results in an extreme waste of the resources of the people
> who *have* managed to get the funds to travel to the venue, so it's not an
> easy decision.
>
> But until such a rule is applied, then remote participants will always
> have an inherent second class status, and not just because of the greater
> difficulty of following and contributing to a meeting from 5,000 miles and
> 12hrs timezone away.
>
> The problem is that the world is largely organised around the idea of
> representative democracy, and this assume your representatives are able to
> get to the meetings.
>
> I've also got something to say about substitutes, for example in the MAG.
> I'm not sure it's very common for elected representatives to send
> substitutes to national Parliaments etc, or in the private sector to
> appoint a proxy who isn't already invited to the meeting.
>
> But in both cases it's entirely possible to arrange for an assistant to
> follow all the proceedings on mailing lists, and to brief the
> representative so that the latter's work is restricted to not much more
> than actually attending the physical meetings.
> --
> Roland Perry
>
>
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-- 

http://www.timdavies.org.uk
07834 856 303.
@timdavies

Co-director of Practical Participation:
http://www.practicalparticipation.co.uk
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