[governance] 2013 Preparations for MAG

[Fouad Bajwa]

To throw in some starters:

1. Should the IGF continue to hold meetings in countries with
authoritative regimes and repressed political environments? People
from certain neighboring countries were not able to participate while
the fear factor of participating in an IGF where the host country was
authoritarian was high.

2. IGF should put out a call for hosts country expression of interest
instead of expecting someone will bid with clearly laid out principles
and process for selection.

3. When do the MAG improvements actually happen with reference to the
CSTD IGF improvements and when will they be reflected i.e. in future
IGFs?

4. Logistical support interms of visa acquisition to attend open
consultations or observe MAG meetings remains a challenge for people
from developing countries and attention to detail is needed from the
IGF secretariat. People from developed regions do have considerable
advantage over this issue but do not represent the views and insights
of developing country issues and inputs to the IGF.

5. The time allocated to Main Session should be significantly reduced
to half and the majority of Main Sessions should be restricted to one
day otherwise this is negatively impacting audience division and the
numbers in Workshop participation.

6. Workshop planing detail should continue to receive more attention
especially interms of quality and issue. The issue around achieving
gender balance, multistakeholder balance and regional coverage are
really not working. The IGF pre-events have to be revisited and should
receive more attention in terms of planning and projection as  these
are receiving a lot of attention by participants.

7.  The visa issue despite being well managed by the host country
remained one of them most unclear aspects of the IGF and the IGF
secretariat should give more emphasis on detailing out these issues
with future host countries in the very beginning.

8. The venue planning needs to be carefully done as having venues
outside the cities causes both stress and challenges to accessibility.

9. An Internet Connectivity Team should be assembled by the IGF
Secretariat that should work beforehand on the ground to manage
internet connectivity to cover remote participation, connectivity for
over 2000 participants keeping in view that this may mean planning and
connecting 2000 people x 6000 devices (laptops, cell phones, wi-fi
enable cameras, tables etc).

10. The sudden shift of Open Consultations and MAG meetings from
Geneva to France for February 2013 without open consultation and
comments from the community puts a severe logistical pressure on
participation for those that find it a challenge to already
participate in such meetings. This shift enables only certain
individuals to participate that can freely move around EU but for
people that need to acquire visas to travel to Switzerland  and
participate from outside of Europe are posed with a big challenge.
Should they apply to Swiss or to the French and how does one explain
why one is taking the visa of one country to participate in the other
and how does the IGF Secretariat plan to manage this?

11. The IGF still requires a great amount of work to be sensitive to
developing country participation in terms of logistics, open
consultation and MAG observation and improvements in its remote
participation that really needs a backup overhaul.

Best

Fouad

On Sun, Nov 25, 2012 at 9:00 AM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro
<salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> We need to start preparing for issues and topics that we would like raised
> by current MAG members.
>
> The Secretariat has put up a call for contributions on the IGF website
> inviting stakeholders to submit written contributions taking stock of the
> 2012 Baku meeting and inviting suggestions on the themes and format of the
> IGF 2013 meeting. The deadline for contributions is 14 February 2012. These
> inputs will be summarized in a synthesis paper that will act as an input
> into the discussions of the February meeting.
>
> The IGC Plan is as follows:
>
> 25 Nov 2012 - Issue Notice to IGC
>
> 25 Nov 2012 - 15 January, 2013 - Gather Feedback and formulate first draft
>
> 16-Jan  -30 Jan 2013 - Review first Draft and gather feedback
>
> 31 Jan - 5th February 2013 - Produce 2nd Draft
>  6th Feb - 10th February - Finalise submissions from IGC
> 11th Feb - Send to IGF Secretariat and our representatives to the MAG
>
>
> It will be great to start discussions on what some of the themes we would
> like canvassed.
>
> Warm Regards
>
>
> --
> Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala
> P.O. Box 17862
> Suva
> Fiji
>
> Twitter: @SalanietaT
> Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
> Tel: +679 3544828
> Fiji Cell: +679 998 2851
>
>
>
>
>
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