[governance] Is the Civil Society doing enough to bring about a balance in Internet Governance Policy positions?

Mon Apr 15 04:10:45 EDT 2019

Dear Arsene,

Yes. The proposal as submitted is as below, to be edited and amended where
necessary. ( The confirmed initial list also includes Jeremy, as stated in
the proposal, a more elaborate list to be drawn up):

The proposal data submitted is as follows:

    ==*1. Proposer (Contact Person)*==
      Gender: Male
      Family Name: Muthusamy
      Given Name: Sivasubramanian
      Nationality: India
      E-mail: 6.Internet at gmail.com
      Stakeholder Group: Civil Society
      Regional Group: Asia-Pacific Group
      Organization: Internet Society India Chennai
      Country where Organization is based: India

    ==*2. Theme*==
      Theme:
Digital
      Inclusion
3. Issues:
distributed
      and decentralized multi-stakeholder approach
*4. Workshop Session Title*: Is the Civil Society doing enough as a
Stakeholder group?
*5. Policy Question(s)*: Is the Civil Society doing enough to bring about a
balance in Internet Governance Policy positions?
*6. Relevance to Theme*: Though proposed under "Digital Inclusion", it is a
workshop on stakeholder 'balance', proposed across the three themes, and of
relevance to the overall design of the multi-stakeholder model of Internet
Governance.
*7. Relevance to Internet Governance*:
When broadly classified, Civil Society is one of the three stakeholders in
Internet Governance. Since WSIS 2005, Civil Society has played a
constructive
role to bring about a balance in Internet Governance debates. However, a
certain degree of imbalance persists as the other stakeholder groups tend to
steer policy a little more than proportionately towards their own respective
positions. Governments around the world draft legislative directives some of
which the Civil Society find undesirable. In some instances, Civil Society
positions remarkably differed from that of Government, the proposed Acts
such
as SOPA or PIPA or Directives were withdrawn, only to be reintroduced and
confirmed by some other title or form. Business responds to Civil Society
positions, for instance, on Privacy issues, but many of the concerns of
Civil
Society are not adequately addressed. It could be stated that the other
stakeholder groups prevail more than proportionately over Civil Society, in
matters related to Internet Governance. This prompts the question, "Is the
Civil Society participating enough? Is the Civil Society doing enough?"

If not enough, what needs to be done? In Internet Governance, the formal
title as "Civil Society" is shared by a somewhat loose collaboration between
Internet Governance participants who took up the Civil Society role since
WSIS 2005, other early CS participants in the IGF, organizations that pursue
issues in public interest including Privacy organizations, Freedom
foundations etc, and also organizations such as some of the Internet Society
Chapters, some of the ICANN AtLarge Structures, some of the participants
from
ICANN Non Commercial Stakeholder Group etc, who partake in Civil Society
positions in their own way, though not always entirely identifying
themselves
as Civil Society.

If the Civil society is not doing enough, is it because it requires greater
interaction among those who pursue Civil Society positions in the IGF? How
would Civil Society strengthen itself? Would it also look for Civil Society
participation from beyond the IGF arena to bring in newer Civil Society
participants to the IGF?

These are some, and not all, questions that follow the questions in the
title.
    ==*8. Workshop Session Format*==
    Session Format: Round Table - Circle - 90 Min

    ==*9. Diversity*==
      First Time in IGF: No
      Times Before: 6
        ==Previous Report==
          Name: Organized the meetings of the Dynamic Coalition on
          Core-Internet Values, and also independently organized 6 or
      more
          workshops.
          Report Link:

https://www.intgovforum.org/multilingual/index.php?q=filedepot_download/4398/555
b.    Are you and/or your
      co-organizers coming from a *developing country [1]* or
      under-represented region?

Developing Countries: Yes
        ==Diversity Options==
          Gender Diversity: Yes
          Geography Diversity: Yes
          Stakeholder Group Diversity: Yes
          Policy Perspective Diversity: Yes
          Accessibility Diversity: No
          Youth Diversity: Yes
          Local Diversity: Yes
          Diversity Information: The workshop is proposed with a list
      of
          three initial panelists, but further work to be done to
      invite
          participation from lead-IGF Civil Society participant
          organizations including Internet Governance Caucus, Best
      Bits,
          Association for Progressive Communication, and also invite
      other
          organizations that pursue Civil Society positions at the IGF
      and
          in related forums, and to invite participation from Business
      and
          Government, all of the above with a certain degree of
          geographical balance and gender balance.

*10. Workshop Session Description*: The session would revolve around the
Title Questions, "Is the Civil Society doing enough to bring about a balance
in Internet Governance Policy positions?" to bring up supplementary
questions, and in the process identify its strengths and weaknesses to
identify solutions towards strengthening itself for a balance.
*11. Workshop Session Expected Outcomes*: The session is aimed to articulate
shared concerns and common pursuits and perhaps lead to well defined efforts
to strengthen the Civil Society for the good of all stakeholders who would
equally desire a certain degree of balance in Internet Governance.
    ==*12. Organizers Information*==
      Email addresses of organizers (comma separated):
      6.Internet at gmail.com

    ==*13. Speakers*==
      Email addresses of provisionally confirmed speakers (comma
      separated):
      6.Internet at gmail.com,sebastien at bachollet.fr,judith at jhellerstein.com
      Speakers Availability:
      Have reached out to the Civil Society lists and user
      organizations, some more work to be done to call for panelists
      with a good understanding of the history of Civil Society in
      Internet Governance, the panelist list is be expanded with
      attention to the various requirements of balance.

    ==*14. Moderators*==
      Online Moderator: sebastien at bachollet.fr
      Onsite Moderator: 6.Internet at gmail.com

*15. Rapporteur*: 6.Internet at gmail.com
    ==*16. Session Interaction and Participation*==
      Discussion Facilitation:
      Following opening remarks and perspectives from the lead
      panelists, the discussion would be around the table, encouraging
      diversity of view points and a free flowing debate with Q at A
      around the table, both questions and responses by all
      participants around the table.

      Online Tools: Yes
      Online Participation: I will request one of the Internet Society
      Chapters to help manage remote participation using the IGF
      platform.
      Other Tools: Yes
      Social Tools: Skype, Zoom, Livestream.

On Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 9:49 AM Arsène Tungali <arsenebaguma at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Siva,
>
> Were you finally able to submit this proposal? I note this came in very
> last minute, i was on a flight so could not comment nor support it’s
> submission.
>
> If it goes to the next stage, then we will have time to reshape it.
>
> Good luck,
> Arsene
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 14 Apr 2019, at 22:22, sivasubramanian muthusamy (via governance
> Mailing List) <governance at lists.riseup.net> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
>
> With a few hours remaining for submission of the 2019 workshops, I intend
> to propose a workshop.  Looking for support from IGC, Besbits and APC, some
> quick suggestions to improve the text, and more importantly, for
> suggestions of speakers who have a good understanding of the history of
> Civil Society in IG.
>
> Kindly respond ASAP.
>
> title
> "Is the Civil Society doing enough?"
> policy question
> "Is the Civil Society doing enough to bring about a balance in Internet
> Governance Policy positions?"
> relevance to the theme:
> Though proposed under "Digital Inclusion", it is a workshop across the
> three themes, and of relevance to the overall design of the
> multi-stakeholder model of Internet Governance.
> relevance to Internet Governance:
> When broadly classified, Civil Society is one of the three stakeholders in
> Internet Governance. Since WSIS 2005, Civil Society has played a
> constructive role to bring about a balance in Internet Governance debates.
> However, a certain degree of imbalance persists as the other stakeholder
> groups tend to steer policy a little more than proportionately towards
> their own respective positions. Governments around the world draft
> legislative directives some of which the Civil Society find undesirable. In
> some instances, Civil Society positions remarkably differed from that of
> Government, the proposed Acts such as SOPA or PIPA or Directives were
> withdrawn, only to be reintroduced and confirmed by some other title or
> form. Business responds to Civil Society positions, for instance, on
> Privacy issues, but many of the concerns of Civil Society are not
> adequately addressed. It could be stated that the other stakeholder groups
> prevail more than proportionately over Civil Society, in matters related to
> Internet Governance. This prompts the question, "Is the Civil Society
> participating enough? Is the Civil Society doing enough?"
>
> If not enough, what needs to be done? In Internet Governance, the formal
> title as "Civil Society" is shared by a somewhat loose collaboration
> between Internet Governance participants who took up the Civil Society role
> since WSIS 2005, other early CS participants in the IGF, organizations that
> pursue issues in public interest including Privacy organizations, Freedom
> foundations etc, and also organizations such as some Internet Society
> Chapters, ICANN AtLarge, ICANN Non Commercial Stakeholder Group etc, who
> partake in Civil Society positions in their own way.
>
> If the Civil society is not doing enough, is it because it requires
> greater interaction among those who pursue Civil Society positions in the
> IGF? How would Civil Society strengthen itself? Would it also look for
> Civil Society participation from beyond the IGF arena to bring in newer
> Civil Society participants to the IGF?
>
> These are some, and not all, questions that follow the questions in the
> title.
>
> Workshop session description:
> The session would revolve around the Title Questions, "Is the Civil
> Society doing enough to bring about a balance in Internet Governance Policy
> positions?" to bring up supplementary questions, and in the process
> identify its strengths and weaknesses to identify solutions towards
> strengthening itself for a balance.
>
>
> Sivasubramanian M <https://www.facebook.com/sivasubramanian.muthusamy>
> twitter.com/shivaindia
>
> ---
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>
>
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