[governance] Fadi Speech to ALAC, Brazil 2014 Meeting and need for IGC and civil society Liaisons

[michael gurstein]

Thanks George and it is a potentially interesting proposition.

 

But I must say that I'm unclear as to precisely what role is being suggested
here.  If the role is to attempt to frame the diversity of voices being
articulated in civil society (in my case including those of the community
informatics community for example) in a manner in which it can be more
readily understood/assimilated/responded to by the technical community I
think that is very useful.

 

If it is, on the other hand, to act as a more or less
"authoritative"/designated "filter" of communications/voices from Civil
Society to the Technical Community then I can see quite considerable
difficulty and controversy resulting, if nothing else, from a concern within
certain CS elements of being "silenced/ignored".

 

(The same clarification would need to be made if the role is perceived as
being more of an "honest broker"-i.e. the question being, particularly on
the CS side, how inclusive of all CS interests/voices is the "brokerage"
committed/able to be. 

 

Perhaps some clarification is in order here either from yourself in how you
perceive the role, or from Ian or Sala on how they presented the role (and
perceive it from a CS perspective).

 

(I should also possibly add here that a significant number of those active
in the Community Informatics community would, by their background,
qualifications, experience and current activities qualify as being "techies"
of one sort or another.  Whether they would qualify as being members of the
"Technical Community" (TC) under what I understand to be the criteria for
inclusion within the TC as currently defined by the formal TC structures I'm
not sure, as their orientation tends to be towards technical design and
fabrication in support of social/digital inclusion and social justice.) 

 

Best to all,

 

M

 

From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org
[mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of George Sadowsky
Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 8:04 AM
To: Ian Peter
Cc: Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro; governance at lists.igcaucus.org
Subject: Re: [governance] Fadi Speech to ALAC, Brazil 2014 Meeting and need
for IGC and civil society Liaisons

 

Hi, Ian,

 

Sala and I talked while we were both in Buenos Aires.  Perhaps I can clarify
my sense of what she may have been proposing.

 

There is at the moment somewhat of a gulf between the technical community
and the list(s) used by the proclaimed representatives of civil society.
Sometimes such differences of opinion, as well as fact, can be resoled
rather quickly if they are discussed directly by people on both sides of the
issue, rather than being left to fester and feed growing suspicion and/or
discontent.  I think that Sala thought that having some announced or implied
line of communication, clearly non-exclusive, might be helpful at times.  I
thought so, too.

 

Having seen little response from anyone on this list, perhaps the idea isn't
welcome in the more formalized sense in which it has been presented, and I
can understand that.  I think that perhaps I could be more active from time
to time in the discussions that occur, and that might help to bridge some
differences between the communities.  Although I consider myself more
technical in the context of Internet governance discussions, I  do have
roots in development activities that are quite consistent with some of the
expressions of opinion posted to this and similar lists.

 

George

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

 

 

On Nov 18, 2013, at 1:12 AM, Ian Peter wrote:

 

Hi Sala, 

 

a matter of clarification please.

 

Are you suggesting that George be a point of liaison within the technical
community for civil society, or that George be a civil society
representative liaising with the technical community?

 

I am all in favour of the former, and admire George's work, but I doubt
whether George would be entirely comfortable with the latter role and even
if he was I doubt that would be acceptable to many on this list. 

 

Ian Peter

 

From: Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro
<mailto:salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com>  

Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 4:20 AM

To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org 

Cc: George Sadowsky <mailto:george.sadowsky at gmail.com>  

Subject: [governance] Fadi Speech to ALAC, Brazil 2014 Meeting and need for
IGC and civil society Liaisons

 

Dear IGC,

As you can imagine, since Bali and in light of the "multistakeholder" event
that will be hosted by the Brazil on the future on Internet Governance
called: "Global Multistakeholder 
Meeting on the Future on Internet Governance," it becomes inherently
critical that we start preparing to shape the Agenda. Many thanks to Carlos
and Hartmut for keeping us informed of what is happening within Brazil and
for taking the time to translate from Portuguese to English when the need
demands. Unfortunately, there were no live transcripts although transcripts
will be provided unlike the live stream available to the GAC community
(tongue in cheek).  To watch the vide of Fadi speaking: 


	

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennmcknight/sets/72157637762195684

 

ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadi spoke about the manner in which ICANN is going to
engage in what I thought was a very mature response symbolic of the desire
to engage with communities.

 As you can imagine in the lead up to the preparations for 2014 we as global
civil society need to consolidate to prepare.  There have been discussions
going on offlist amongst the various facilitators of some of the core civil
society groups about how this is to take place where it has centered on the
possibilities of a joint framework for engagement of civil society including
Multistakeholder selection processes for some of the key positions. There
was suggestion to experiment first with the combined NomCom for the MAG and
I highlighted that this could be difficult in light of the pressing
deadlines.  There may be room however for joint endorsements but I will
leave this to the NomCom Chair. At this point, I do not want to burden our
NomCom as they are working against a very narrow and tight deadline. Whilst
we are waiting for the other groups to comment on coordinated and shared
framework for engagement, I would like to propose the following to the IGC.

Given that we do not have time nor the resources, it has been by way of an
ad hoc nature common for people who are involved in foras or diverse
communities to provide feedback on what is happening randomly. This to a
large extent happens but my sense is that we need to be better coordinated
and have different people watch the different spaces they are in and liaise
back with the IGC. I suggested that this could be done with and through
combined civil society but I think we need to pick up the pace and start
anyway whilst waiting.

To this extent, I would propose that in the spirit of enhanced cooperation
that we use our own people within civil society who happen to wear multiple
hats to act as liaisons, even if temporary at this point until such time
where we can coordinate more permanent representation. I feel that the IGC
should have liaisons in the following circles:

.       Technical Community 

.       Business Community

.       Governments

The liaisons role would be to be a bridge into these communities to channel
developments of what is happening within these communities that are of
relevance to civil society and also from time to time raise the issues of
civil society or broker and facilitate the process through which these views
can be heard. If there are people who feel they can function in these roles,
we need volunteers. This is to ensure that we know what is happening at all
times.

The IGC has two options, we can utilize a formal process and invite calls
for nominations and have a NomCom make the selection. On another note, we
can maintain the informal ad hoc liaison process that is currently in place.
My personal preference is for the latter to allow for volunteers who are
consistent and command the respect of the diverse communities.

Given the current deadlines and politics surrounding the 2014 Meeting in
Brazil, I propose that we have George Sadowski to act as liaison for us to
the technical community. I am of the view that we can have at least two to
three liaisons as the Technical Community is diverse and spread out between
the ETSI, W3C, ITU-T, IETF, ICANN, IAB, RIR etc.  For now the liaison
function can be limited to the developments of the Rio engagement with room
to evolve into identifying issues affecting global public interest that
civil society might want to monitor in a consistent and cohesive manner.
Whilst George is also a member of the ICANN Board, I am not asking him as an
ICANN Board member but as a member of the IGC.

 If there are those that wish to join George in this role, there is nothing
stopping a list of volunteers from being part of a team that condenses the
issues in diverse stratas and feeds it back into the IGC in a consolidated
manner.

As we engage in coming to the table to set the Agenda, we need to do so
intelligently and cohesively and in a coordinated manner. This was one of
the things raised in the meeting in Bali-

In the future as the IGC evolves, there is space to develop a working group
to focus on technical and policy stratas that we may wish to organize our
advocacies in. For a long while, advocacy has been happening via individuals
or groups that have pet topics and issues. 

 

Kind Regards,

Sala

(In my personal capacity)

 

George Sadowski Profile and Biography

GEORGE SADOWSKY: BIOGRAPHY

George Sadowsky is currently a member of the Board of Directors of ICANN
(Internet 

Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and a consultant to, inter alia,
the World Wide 

Web Foundation and NATO.

He received an A.B. degree with honors in Mathematics from Harvard College
and M.A. and 

Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Yale University. After spending 1958-1962 as
an applied 

mathematician and programmer, his career concentrated on applying computers
to economic 

and social policy, leading academic computing and networking organizations,
and making 

information and communication technologies (ICTs) useful throughout the
world. In 1963-64 he 

introduced the use of microsimulation for tax analysis purposes in the U.S.
Treasury Department. 

During 1966-1970 he founded and directed the Computer Center at the
Brookings Institution in 

Washington; from 1970-73 he did economic research at the Urban Institute
leading to his Ph.D, 

dissertation on the subject of micro-analytic simulation of the household
sector.

During 1973-86 at the United Nations, he supported the transfer of
information technology to 

developing countries. He has done work in more than 50 developing countries
and continues to 

do so. Among other things, he introduced the use of microcomputers for
census data processing 

in Africa in 1979, and he worked in China during 1982-1986 supporting the
computing activities 

of their 1982 Census of Population and Housing.

>From 1986 to 2001, he directed academic computing and networking activities,
first at 

Northwestern University and then at New York University. He has been a
consultant to the U.S. 

Treasury Department, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, UNDP, the Swiss
Government, 

and a number of foundations. He was a Board member of AppliedTheory
Corporation and was a 

Trustee of the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking (CREN)
and the New York 

State Educational and Research Network (NYSERNet). He was actively involved
in World 

Bank activities during 1996-2002 as a member and Coordinator of the
Technical Advisory 

Panel for the infoDev program, as well as in UNDP and USAID activities. In
1994, he and Larry 

Landweber formulated USAID's Leland Initiative for providing initial
Internet connectivity 

for 20 African countries. He was a member of the Internet Society Board of
Trustees during

1996-1999 and 2000-2004 and served as Vice President for Conferences
(1996-1998) and Vice-
President for Education (1998-2001). He headed a group of ISOC volunteers
who defined and

conducted the ISOC Developing Country Network Training Workshops during 1993
-2001.

More recently, he was the Executive Director of the Global Internet Policy
Initiative (GIPI)

from 2001-2006, which had active ongoing Internet policy reform projects in
17 countries. He 

also served as Senior Technical Adviser within USAID's dot-GOV program for
the Internews 

Consortium, providing ICT policy assistance to the developing world. He has
served as an 

expert witness for litigation in the United Kingdom and the United States.
He was a special 

adviser to Nitin Desai, the Chair of the UN Secretary-General's Internet
Governance Forum 

as well as to the Chair of UN G at ID. He has served as a member of the PIR
(Public Internet 

Registry) Advisory Board, and he is currently a member of the ICANN
(Internet Corporation for 

Assigned Names and Numbers) Board of Directors He has written and lectured
extensively on 

Please refer to his web site, http://www.georgesadowsky.org/ as well as the
GIPI web site, http://

www.internetpolicy.net <http://www.internetpolicy.net/> , for additional
information.

 

  _____  

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