[governance] Fwd: IGF 2012 - Bilateral meeting

[Suresh Ramasubramanian]

Sauces for the goose, and for the gander :)

Very well put - and I share your skepticism about "civil society consensus", informed consensus at any rate, for an audience that is larger than the typical igov involved civ soc organization crowd

--srs (iPad)

On 02-Nov-2012, at 12:02, Andrea Glorioso <andrea at digitalpolicy.it> wrote:

> (Speaking with the "European Commission official" hat here).
> 
> Let's not blow things out of proportion. There is no attempt at "imposing false notions of representations" for the simple reason that in the dark corridors of Mordor, I mean Brussels, we are perfectly aware "civil society" is a rather fluid concept and it is difficult to identify "spokesperson" or "representatives" (which, incidentally, also means that when any of the various persons or organisations in the "civil society" galaxy claims to "represent" anything, our usual reaction is one of skepticism. You can't have it both ways I guess).
> 
> Frankly,anyway, I do not quite understand why it is ok for the IGC to have "co-coordinators" which de facto speak on behalf of the IGC in several occasions, and for members of this list to choose a speaker that will de facto represent them at the opening session (if I understood well); but when other parties ask whether there are NGOs et al that would like to have an informal chat with people from the European Commission and the European Parliament, all hell breaks loose.
> 
> But I guess that since the EU's final plan is to take over the Internet and impose automatic translation of all websites in 22 languages, we can't possibly be trusted.
> 
> More practically, if you can find a venue large enough for an open meeting (we couldn't) why not propose a larger set-up?
> 
> Best,
> 
> Andrea
> 
> On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 11:04 PM, Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu> wrote:
>> 5 or 6 people, max? Ridiculous. This is an inherently bad, undemocratic method.
>> 
>> Governments such as the EC try to impose false notions of “representation” on civil society, by seeking a few “spokespersons” or “representatives.” Their only real object is to make their job easier. We should decline to cooperate with this political version of artificial scarcity, and just insist on an open meeting. I am serious. If you are so flattered that they asked for your opinion, but go along with their attempt to reduce civil society to a few privileged voices, you are completely missing the point.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 2:05 PM, Izumi AIZU <iza at anr.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Following the one in Nairobi last year, European commission and European Parliament 
>> 
>> people want to hold an informal meeting with civil society members and 
>> 
>> asked Wolfgang to coordinate.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Since this is an informal meeting with limited space, we need to find and decide who will
>> 
>> be there. Around  5 or 6 people, max.
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
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