[governance] WisdomTF (was Re: Evidence-based policy-making and impact assessments for Internet-related policies)

[Norbert Bollow]

Mawaki Chango <kichango at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Norbert, for your clear and informative responses. The goal of
> WisdomTF is commendable although (if the experience on this list were
> to be of any lesson) the task might be more daunting to reach
> consensus

What we have been seeing here in the IGC is that one cannot expect to
reach consensus (and sometimes even just having a constrictive discourse
can become difficult) if the diversity (of viewpoints, interests, styles
of communication, and understandings of fundamental terms) is too great.

The design of WisdomTF addresses that problem by foreseeing a mechanism
through which that kind of problem can be addressed: If a working-group
is (in the opinion of a number of participants) not making enough
progress towards consensus, they are able to initiate a more focused
competing group.

How well the specific mechanism that I'm proposing will work in practice
is an empirical question of course, we won't know until it is tried out.
At least something is there to prevent a mere duplication of the
difficulties with consensus processes that we have here in the IGC. If
the initial set of procedures doesn't work well enough, I fully expect
that (if necessary after tweaking the initial procedures a bit), it
will be possible to arrive at a set of procedures that meet the needs. 

> on what's good (what works and to what extent) and what's
> not in terms of policy than it is with technical standards and IETF.

Where there are several viewpoints that all appear to be legitimate in
that they don't violate fundamental principles (the internationally
recognized human rights and the contents of the WSIS-CS declaration of
2003 are considered fundamental principles for all of WisdomTF; some
working-group charters may adopt additional principles - which do not
contradict those - as part of the basis on which they operate), a
consensus document can be produced that explains all of those
viewpoints and about what is known to speak and favor and against each
of them.

> Nonetheless, there might be proven good experiences, "best practices"
> and critical lessons learned, and it will go a long way to have a
> place, or a couple of them, globally recognized as places where one
> can get robust, state-of-the-art information or knowledge or
> experience on the critical policy issues of the day.

Yes, definitely - but I certainly want WisdomTF to go beyond the areas
where a consensus exists among the truly knowledgeable and well-informed
people on what is a “best practice”.

For example, even when it is not clear what is a “best practice”, there
may be some intuitively convincing policy options that have been tried
in some countries already and that have failed to deliver what was
expected from them. I believe that there is great value in collecting
such information even in the absence of consensus on what could be
recommended as a “best practice”.

> While I'm at it, it just occurs to me that one of the main challenges
> will first be to distinguish the question "what works?" (or "what's
> good?" in that sense) from these questions "what's good? what's
> better? what's best?" in the normative sense, although the normative
> dimension is also crucial in policy-making.

Actually many questions that appear to be normative and therefore
intractible (to consensus processes) in some particular policy contexts
look very different when considered in the light of the global systemic
perspective of seeking to globally realize the internationally agreed
human rights and the vision of the WSIS-CS declaration of 2003.

Greetings,
Norbert

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