[governance] [bestbits] Civil society transparency

Sat Jun 6 22:20:42 EDT 2015

Ian and all,

The reason why there is a request for disclosure is so as to know the background or context from which opinions/positions/actions emerge.  It is the same argument I think, as that concerning real identity vs. anonymity as per the current Facebook controversy. It is an extremely useful and in some cases essential item of information to know who (the identity) it is that one is interacting with. 

My own feeling on the issue is that unless there are strong and persuasive arguments in favour of anonymity then knowing the “identity” of who (or what) ever one is interacting with is a basic requirement. I don’t know that it has ever been an issue in our various IG discussions but if it did arise my guess is that most would opt for people using their “real” names/identities for their contributions.

If the above is the case then I think that by extension we can give some content to what we mean by “real identity”.  

To some degree the components of the “real identity” required for effective communication/interaction will vary from context to context—for romantic purposes age, appearance, gender would likely be necessary; for financial contexts formal elements as might be required or contracts such as citizenship, financial and credit information are part of that “real identify”.  

I would argue that in our IG context “real identity” should include a knowledge of the financial/contractual contexts (i.e. who is paying the piper) from which individual participation is being presented.

M

From: bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net [mailto:bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net] On Behalf Of Ian Peter
Sent: June 7, 2015 6:03 AM
To: parminder; governance at lists.igcaucus.org; BestBitsList; Forum at Justnetcoalition. Org; A general information sharing space for the APC Community.
Subject: Re: [bestbits] [governance] Civil society transparency

Hi Parminder,

Following from the discussion, here is what I think is possible and realistic in this space.

Firstly, I think the question of transparency and disclosure of conflicts of interest is important.

However, I don’t think people need to declare interests to involve themselves in discussion here or in any of our open mailing lists, and the real concerns start to arise only when people are seeking office as civil society representatives.

Here, most of the office bearing exists in the various coalitions – APC, Best Bits, JNC, NCSG, IGC. I would urge each of these groups, when holding elections, to require candidates to register any conflicts of interest. I know Best Bits is moving to elections for its Steering Committee again soon, perhaps it could formulate some sort of basic disclosure requirement for its purposes? And I guess JNC must be moving towards holding its first elections for SC replenishment soon?  And IGC could easily add such a requirement for its candidates for co cordinator elections (presumably late this year).

But these are requirements for individual groups, and the form of such is for each group to determine. I think however that such a requirement would be a good idea.

As regards CSCG – our calls for candidates are for appointments to outside bodies, and I agree that some form of disclosure of any conflicts of interest would be a good idea. Currently it would appear that our next task would be MAG replenishment (and a small one at that), probably early next year. I will suggest to the members that we should require some sort of basic disclosure statement. But that of course is up to the members (APC, BB, JNC, NCSG, IGC) to determine.

I’m not sure we can go much further. But if some work can be done on a simple model of a form of disclosure, that would be good.

Ian Peter

From: parminder <mailto:parminder at itforchange.net>  

Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2015 5:31 PM

To: Ian Peter <mailto:ian.peter at ianpeter.com>  ; governance at lists.igcaucus.org <mailto:governance at lists.igcaucus.org>  ; BestBitsList <mailto:bestbits at lists.bestbits.net>  ; mailto:forum at justnetcoalition.org ; A general information sharing space for the APC Community. <mailto:apc.forum at lists.apc.org>  

Subject: [governance] Civil society transparency

Ian, and reps of civil society networks on the Civil Society Coordination Group (CSCG) ,

I propose that CSCG sets up a civil society transparency project, somewhat on the lines of the EU Transparency Register, pl see http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyregister/public/homePage.do .

It should in fact go beyond the EU initiative which is a general one for all lobbying groups, whereas we here are concerned with civil society which should set the highest example of transparency and accountability. The 'register' can have self filled information on objectives of an organisation, principles followed by it, if any, its funding, partners, and so on.... 

This is at present just my proposal, but I hope one or more civil society networks in the IG space can own it and push it... CSCG would be well placed to run this project as a neutral space so that there is no accusation of bias that any such initiative is being employed for partisan purposes. In any case, a simple initiative for openness, transparency and accountability can hardly be partisan.

The register can have optional higher level features whereby a group/ org can declare its means of public accountability, whether and how its internal governance is done, how matters can be taken by with their oversight bodies, like board etc, and whether they have any means whereby they respond to public question on their work, etc.

For such genuine cases where such transparency can harm an organisations work, or security, such organisations, and only such organisations, can be exempted employing a clear process and set of criteria.

Remember, both the UN report on improvements to the IGF and the NetMundial Statement highlight the issue of transparency. I also recently read in these lists how we should make bridges with the OpenGov movement which is almost wholly about this one thing. Time we begin practising what we preach. 

I look forward to hear responses to this proposal..

parminder 

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