[governance] IMPORTANT : Merging IGC with Best Bits

[Mueller, Milton L]

I am feeling very old reading these messages ;-)

To me it is obvious that IGC, BB and CSGC are all outgrowths of WSIS civil society, which started around 2001. What became IGC started as the mailing list of WSIS civil society.

Why not consider the merged or combined entity to be the “new” IGC? BB barely exists anymore, and it emerged as an outgrowth of IGC in reality. There is no need to turn our back on the long history of WSIS civil society while at the same time reorganizing in a way that recognizes the contribution of BB and makes us more effective.

What should be clear to everyone is that the current arrangement is no longer effective and something needs to be changed.

I also believe that the current structure of CSCG is an arbitrary historical artifact and should not constrain what we do now. I do agree with Bruna, however, that restructuring CSGC representation should be step two. Let’s get IGC’s house in order first.


Dr. Milton Mueller
Professor, School of Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology





From: governance-request at lists.riseup.net [mailto:governance-request at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of Bruna Martins dos Santos
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2018 2:11 PM
To: Akinremi Peter Taiwo <compsoftnet at gmail.com>; Nadira Araj <nadira.araj at gmail.com>
Cc: Arsène Tungali <arsenebaguma at gmail.com>; governance <governance at lists.riseup.net>
Subject: Re: [governance] IMPORTANT : Merging IGC with Best Bits

Dear All,

Thanks Arsène for kicking off the discussion here on IGC.

When the merger discussion was brought up, some of the attendees agreed that the "The historical moment that required the separation of IGC and Best bits is long gone and that the merger would be interesting due to the limited volunteering time and resources available for managing both groups". Therefore, while I dont yet have a personal opinion with regards to the merger, I believe that it could result in a stronger and (even) more active CS caucus/coordination group.

I guess it is safe to say that we all acknowledge the importance of both groups, as well as their legacy. And with IGC being the first Civil Society gatherings having started back in 2003 (in the early stages of the WSIS process) I would not be pleased with a merger that did not bear in mind the importance of the statements issued in the past or even the importance of groups such as ours in strengthening Civil Society participation.

At the same time, we have to consider that this list is no longer as active as it once was and that our website<http://www.igcaucus.org/> is no longer functional and some other things that were lost in the transition. So the merger suggestion comes in light of the future discussions and coordinations that could be generated within a joint/stronger group.

Having said that, I agree that we could come up with a draft merger proposal, as suggested by @Nadira Araj<mailto:nadira.araj at gmail.com>. If we agree on this new group, there might be a need for discussions around structure - best bits has a steering committee while Best Bits has only two co-coordinators - and a new institutional mandate. With regards to the CSCG, Best Bits and IGC are 2 of the 5 CS groups represented there, but Id say that the CSCG composition and the discussions about representation there should be discussed in a second moment.

But I would also like to hear more from the list on this subject.

Best regards,
Bruna Santos

Em seg, 17 de dez de 2018 às 16:54, Akinremi Peter Taiwo <governance at lists.riseup.net<mailto:governance at lists.riseup.net>> escreveu:
Thanks Arsene for sharing your thought. I could not attend the call because of my engagement during the ecommerce week in Nairobi.

I would say that we don't rush into this merging of IGC and Bestbit without first clarifying questions such as the purpose of existence and whether the merging will translate automatically to the group active participation. It would be good to conduct an assessment that will lead to a reliable recommendations.

With that in mind, how would that affect the structure of CSCG and expanding it scope to accommodate more civil society organization.

Regards
Peter.

Regards.



On Mon, Dec 17, 2018, 3:00 PM Arsène Tungali <governance at lists.riseup.net<mailto:governance at lists.riseup.net> wrote:
Hi everyone,

You have probably seen this already on a different thread but thought
it well to have this discussion solely on the IGC list (as I expect
Best Bits to do the same), that's why i started this thread hoping to
hear from you on this important question.

This need for merging was raised by some IGC members during a civil
society call that had mostly IGC and Best Bits participants; many of
whom are both IGC and Best Bits (BB) members. The call happened last
week and Farzaneh offered to share the link to the recording.

I will not go into much details about the rationale but would welcome
anyone to weigh in and share their reasoning on whether or not we
should merge both lists. We will need to also answer the question on
how (who is doing what?) will this happen? Is the IGC going to become
BB or the latter becoming IGC? Or are we working towards a different
group where members of both groups will all be added?

This brings back to my memory the whole hassle we had to migrate
(SAVE?) this list and allow us to have this discussion list (which
hasn't been quite active for a few months but where many feel safe to
share IG related updates). So i hope we discuss and take into account
the technical cost of the merging process (should it happen).

I am also not sure how we will gauge consensus about this question on
this list? Should we vote? How long do we take to decide? Should we
consult IGC 'founders' or former Co-coordinators separately and ask
them what they think?

During the call, Bruna and I offered to have a decision by mid-January
and we hope this is realistic given the holiday season. We will then
report to the group.

I just wanted to throw this all here and would REALLY appreciate a
discussion that will help us move forward and come to a conclusion.

Best regards,
Arsene
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--
Bruna Martins dos Santos

Skype ID: bruna.martinsantos
@boomartins
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