[governance] A workshop on Nnenna's questions? (was Re: Blogpost:...)

[Avri Doria]

On 22 Mar 2013, at 11:43, Adam Peake wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 8:00 PM, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
>> [with IGC coordinator hat on]
>> 
>> In any case, if the idea is to go forward, in whatever way, it will
>> need a volunteer to move it forward.
>> 
>> BTW "there should be fewer workshops" has *not* been adopted as an
>> IGC consensus position. The thought was included in the recent IGC
>> statement, but only with a "Some of us suggest:" qualifier, because
>> it did not get consensus otherwise.
>> 
> 
> 
> OK, could you check.  I don't remember anyone saying more workshops
> better, perhaps one saying it wasn't an issue, and quite a number
> saying less would be good (one way or another saying a drop in numbers
> would be good).

I do.  I like there being a lot of diversity in the workshop offerings.  I think a better job should be done of threading them so that like does not compete with like in the same time slot.

But I do beleive that in any of the themes one should be able to attend something in that theme in most every time slot if that is ones pleasure or need.

I also have no problem with workshops that have too few attendees.  Both on the IGF were I participated in a workshop with fewer than 10 people came, and at recent ILGA world conference where only 3 people came to a session i was giving, we had a great session.  And since the IGF allows us to capture the sound and transcript of every workshop no matter how sparsely attended, they are all available to all of us and to all stakeholders, no matter how few people attend initially.

I think that we only bring this group together once a year on a global level and we should allow for all the conversations possible, even if it is only among a handful of people who would not share otherwise on this topic.


> 
> it does matter.   Seems one of the reasons for this preliminary
> proposal process is to try and reduce the number of workshops, to
> reduce duplicates on the same topic, and to make the barrier a bit
> higher for frequent contributors.  If there really isn't consensus
> that the number of workshops should be reduced this year (there were
> 11 parallel tracks in Baku) then CS MAG members might like to know
> that's the prevailing view.

As I said I have a dissenting view.  I think the more MAG pares things down, the more they reduce the information that will be shared and the more they curtail the opportunities for capacity building.  I also think it is a waste of their time, they have more important issues to work on that the endless haggle over workshops.

I do agree with those who say we should have more free time, although I think free time is largely found by skipping sessions for other activities from time to time.   I also think that there should be decent free time intervals between sessions to allow chat time at the end of a workshop.  Unless food is being offered by the host, I would prefer a schedule that ran through the day of (90 minute sessions followed by 30 minute breaks from 8am tile 8pm with not specific feeding time.  We travel far for the opportunity to meet, so lets meet as much as possible while at the meeting.  People don't need to go to all meetings, but all meetings need to be held.  Sell sandwiches the hungry can bring to the sessions or sit in a nice environment and char over.  Wasting a workshop time slot with lunch makes no sense to  me - unless of course it is a cultural affair where the hosts treats the assembled.

avri

ILGA - International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association: a worldwide federation campaigning for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights, since 1978.
MAG - Multistakeholder Advisory Group
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