[governance] Re: [bestbits] Re: [CoNE-elist 679] Re: Open Letter by Indian civil society organizations to the Chair of the 'MMFIG' being held in Brazil, April, 2014
Ian Peter
ian.peter at ianpeter.com
Mon Feb 24 18:07:17 EST 2014
Just some background here -
When I first heard rumours that this might happen – about a month ago from memory – I wrote to Adiel from 1net, Carlos Afonso, and Hartmut Glaser asking them what the process for appointment of Co-chairs was and whether they were involved. All three wrote back that they were not involved and it was a personal choice for Prof Almeida.
I then wrote to Prof Almeida in a personal capacity, informing him that civil society had a representative process that could be utilised if he would like advice from us, and would he like us to submit a slate of names for his consideration? Indeed I indicated a few likely names in my letter of people we might nominate as examples – just to ensure that it could not be said that only one name was submitted. I never received a reply.
I am also aware that, after the appointment, the civil society 1net steering committee representatives raised questions, and were officially told that this was out of scope because this was a decision for the Chair. However, I believe that they were told informally in the Webex record that 1net would have been consulted before a decision was made.
Which, given that 1net is the co-organiser of the conference, I suspect is the case, although I am 100% sure what Adiel told me was true from his perspective. (likewise for Carlos and Hartmut of course)
Given that Subi’s past involvement with civil society on internet governance issues is largely related to her MAG membership, I suspect what happened is that some prominent member/members of the technical community active in MAG matters were informally asked to submit a name or comment on the suggestion of Subi (she would have written and offered her services, I am sure.),and without any further thought did so. After all, they are used to making decisions without consultation with other stakeholder representatives and multistakeholder processes of consultation where civil society should be involved in civil society appointments are quite new to them.
That’s my hypothesis at this point of time. So I don’t feel inclined to blame Prof Almeida – rather, whoever it was who recommended her to Prof Almeida without consulting civil society has to learn this is not appropriate process. Perhaps someone reading here could copy this to the appropriate person and make it known that next time it would be advisable to refer such suggestions to the appropriate stakeholder group.
Given how quickly all of this happened and the fairly chaotic nature of Brazil preparations, I am inclined to think it was just a thoughtless action from someone who I hope will learn from this experience and refer such suggestions appropriately next time. So while I am pleased to see the Indian letter raising these questions and think it is entirely appropriate to raise them, I think it is simply the result of poorly considered rushed processes and a history of not consulting other stakeholder groups, and that hopefully those responsible will learn from this mistake.
Ian Peter
From: Anja Kovacs
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 12:49 AM
To: parminder
Cc: Avis Momeni ; governance at lists.igcaucus.org ; cone-elist at net-equality.org ; Best Bits
Subject: [governance] Re: [bestbits] Re: [CoNE-elist 679] Re: Open Letter by Indian civil society organizations to the Chair of the 'MMFIG' being held in Brazil, April, 2014
I don't think we should provide an alternative ourselves - that is not the point, and if the organisers have appointed a member of the HLMC as co-chair for another stakeholder group, they know that this is an option.
We could perhaps indicate that the Joint NomCom under Ian's leadership is ready to provide any support or feedback that the Chair might need on this decision - that is if the Joint NomCom agrees to taking up this role of course.
Best,
Anja
On 24 February 2014 16:51, parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
In the current circumstances, I think it is best that one of the three civil society members of the High Level Committee (HLC) should be picked up as civil society co-chair... All the three HLC members came through a civil society nomination process. This is what got done in the case of academic community co chair.. One of three HLC academic community members - Jeanette
- was picked as academic community co chair.
It will be good if the major civil society networks can support the letter from India civil society, and together propose the above way to go forward....
Whatever we do needs to be done fast, in the next 2-3 days..
Can the respective coordinators etc take up the task..
thanks
parminder
On Monday 24 February 2014 03:34 PM, Avis Momeni wrote:
Dear Rishab,
Greetings from Cameroon,
May be it will be appropriated in this letter when disagree Prof. Virgilio Almeida's choice, to propose a consensus person that all of you as civil societies organizations would like to be appointed in regards of the challenges you are all looking for.
Kind regards.
Avis.
Avis MOMENI
Secretary General
PROTEGE QV
P.O Box 4888 Yaounde
Tel/Fax:(237) 22.31.85.46
CAMEROON
Please take a few glances
at: www.protegeqv.org
Le Samedi 22 février 2014 19h50, Rishab Bailey <rishab.bailey at gmail.com> a écrit :
Dear Friends,
Attached is an open letter Indian civil society organisations propose to
send to Prof. Virgilio Almeida, Chair of the Multistakeholder Meeting on
the Future of Internet Governance being held in Brazil in April this year,
regarding the appointment of the civil society co-chair for the meeting.
This letter has been agreed on by virtually every civil society
organisation in India who have been involved in the Internet Governance
space.
(the list of organisations - in alphabetical order - is as follows:
1. Centre for Communication Governance
2. Centre for Internet and Society
3. Digital Empowerment Foundation
4. Free Software Movement of India
5. Institute of Global Internet Governance and Advocacy
6. Internet Democracy Project
7. IT for Change
8. Open Knowledge Community
9. Society for Knowledge Commons
10. Software Freedom Law Centre, India)
We plan to submit this letter to the Chair on Monday (24th February, 2014)
(together with any further endorsements received).
Should you or your organisation wish to support / endorse this letter, do
let me know at the earliest possible.
Thanks and regards,
Rishab Bailey
for the Society for Knowledge Commons, India
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This is an elist of "Coalition on Net Equality", devoted to discussing governance of the global Internet from an equity, democracy and social justice point of view. To unsubscribe, or change to a daily digest or a biweekly report, please email manasa at itforchange.net.
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Dr. Anja Kovacs
The Internet Democracy Project
+91 9899028053 | @anjakovacs
www.internetdemocracy.in
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