[governance] New Best Bits list to work towards shared position on evolution of IG arrangements

[Jeremy Malcolm]

As we get closer to "relaunching" Best Bits for 2013 with a new website
and some new faces, it's time to get down to one of the main orders of
business for this year: the positive agenda for the evolution of
Internet governance arrangements.  (If you need a refresher on this
year's agenda, check  the list archive at
http://lists.igcaucus.org/arc/bestbits/2013-03/msg00005.html.)

As you know, an Enhanced Cooperation Working Group of the UN CSTD is
tasked with making recommendations about potential improvements to the
status quo, and it is important that this doesn't become an excuse for
the introduction of an ITU-style intergovernmental mechanism.  At the
other extreme, a stick-in-the-mud approach that protects incumbent
vested interests would be equally harmful, and there was some agreement
at our last workshop that civil society can do better than that.

At the October 2013 Best Bits meeting in Bali that we plan to hold ahead
of the IGF (thanks APC), one of our objectives will be to reach
agreement amongst as many as possible of the participants on a positive
model (or models) for evolution of existing arrangements, so that the
civil society representatives in CSTD Working Group can advocate more
strongly for such a model than if we had not spent the time to develop
such a shared position (which, make no mistake, the other stakeholder
groups *will* have done).

We are really very privileged that all but one (so far) of the civil
society representatives in the CSTD Working Group have agreed to
participate in this discussion with Best Bits members, forming a little
informal working group for discussion.  For now a separate mailing list
has been set up for this discussion, though if enough people feel
strongly that the discussion should take place on the main Best Bits
list, we can consider rolling the lists together later.

Join this working group, click "Subscribe" on this page:

http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/ec

Whilst this is certainly not meant as an exclusive place for discussion,
the "value add" intended to be provided is that it will be reasonably
tightly focussed on the end goal of developing a concrete proposal (or
proposals) for the larger group to discuss, and which will assist the
civil society representatives at the CSTD in making the case that there
is at least one model of evolutionary change that enjoys fairly broad
support from civil society.

Since the legitimacy of our proposal depends on the inclusiveness of the
exercise (which is and always has been a top priority for the Best Bits
network), feel free to cc this invitation to other civil society lists
that may also be interested in getting involved (I've added the IGC
governance list above already).  For those who are not already members
of the *main* Best Bits list, you should also join that: you can do by
hitting "Subscribe" at a different address,
http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/bestbits.

We are also planning to call soon for volunteers for a lightweight Best
Bits steering group with balanced representation from all regions.  But
I will leave Andrew to tell more about this in a separate message.  I
will also have news soon about fundraising for travel funds, that will
allow a good number of you to participate in Bali if you would otherwise
have difficulty in doing so.  And of course, the new website and
calendar coming soon!  It will be an exciting and important year.

-- 

*Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers*
Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, TTDI, 60000 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Tel: +60 3 7726 1599

WCRD 2013 -- Consumer Justice Now! | Consumer Protection Map:
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