[afnog] Fwd: [governance] DAY 1 (WGIG)

Wed Nov 24 11:48:27 EAT 2004

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>X-Organization: AfriNIC
>X-web-site: www.afrinic.net
>Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 10:01:11 +0100
>From: Wolfgang Kleinwächter
>         <kleinwaechter at medienkomm.uni-halle.de>
>To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
>Thread-topic: DAY 1
>
>Dear list
>
>here is a brief report from Day 1:
>
>1. 38 members of the group were present. ASdditionally they allowed 
>observers (with speaking rights) from intergovernmental organisations.
>2. Utsumi gave an introduction and receommended a narrow approach 
>concentrating on ICANN/ITU issues, which did not get much support from the 
>following discussion.
>3. an interesting two hours of self-introduction of the members of the 
>group gave you an impression ablut the potential of this new body. It is 
>very mixed but very balanced (with the exception of Gender).
>4. In the afternoon there was a discussion on the proposed structure of 
>the working procedures, the time tabglke, the proposed structure of the 
>final report and the issues. The discssion did not go deep but showed 
>already some directions.
>5. The outcome of Day 1 can be descrobed as follows
>a. the climate is good. there has been no extremist or radical or 
>provocative statements. Everybody wants to make a productive and 
>constructive contribution.
>b. The group agreed on a working method which combines effectively online 
>and offline consultations in oipen and (moderate) closed circles. Closed 
>meetings will not be really closed because they promised WiFi for the next 
>days. There will be to listservers, one for the members and one for the 
>public. The only receommenation for members was that when they report from 
>the closed list to the iopen list they should respect the privacy and 
>integrity of others members of the group if they quote something.
>c. we got a timetable with meetings in February, April (probably New 
>York), May (an extroordinary meeting by invitation of the Egyptian 
>government in Cairo) and June for the final report.
>d. the structure of the report, which was proposed by Markus Kummer, was 
>more or less seen as a basis for further discussion and wilkl be posted on 
>the web soon.
>e. the main discussion oin the structure of the report was on the issues 
>of definition, issues and scenarios. But not substantial content related 
>discussion took place so far.
>f. while Utsumi refered to a high level of confusion, I could not see any 
>big confusion among the members of the group. They jnow what they are 
>talking about. A different story is that different persons have different 
>ideas about the same issue. But this is not confusion.
>g. there was a general agreement that we shiuld start with a broad 
>approach (going even beyond the 41 issues presented by Al Gazahleh in 
>Berlin) and then start to trimm it down to the WGIG porioritiies. But here 
>a long way is to go and it is too early to make any points.
>h. the Cuban member made a good statement, arguint that the main issue is 
>not subject a or b but representation and participation in policy 
>development and decision making. Surprisingly Ayasha from the ICC 
>applauded this and we saw a first interesting coalition between Cuba and 
>the private sector.:-)
>g. the Chinese member made another interesting statementargueing that the 
>task of the group is to be innovative and to add to the existing 
>institutions creative mechanisms. This was interesting in particular 
>because she gave the impression that they do not want to change existing 
>insitututions. The other important point she made was that she argued 
>while the principle of private sector leadership was good for the start of 
>the Internet, it has to be reconsidered in the light of the reality and 
>the reality is, that in the majority of the third world coutnries, there 
>is only a very weak private sector and no real civil society.So the only 
>player in twon is the goivernment which can do something or overtake some 
>responsibilities. This is a serious argument and has to be considered, at 
>least in my eyes.
>h. procedurally it was interesting to swee the interaction between 
>governmental and non-governmental actors. I would experct that some 
>governmental actors, after they have rwad their oficial text, coordinated 
>with "the capital at hom,e"they will remain silent and soon you will see a 
>core group of activiists, going through the three stakeholders groups. 
>Civil society speakers made a substantial contribution with different 
>voices and some fresh ideas. From the observer bank, the most active 
>contribution came from Richard Hill, arguing again that there is no real 
>propblem as long as the ITU managaes all numbers silently to the benefit 
>of everybody.
>
>We had  a nice evening in the "Brasserie"with a mixture of civil society 
>and private sector people (32 on a long beer table) but no governmental 
>representative joint this beer drinking activty until 11.00 p.m.
>
>Nesdt report will follow soon
>
>Best
>
>wolfgang
>
>
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Adiel A. AKPLOGAN                               Tel. +27 (0)12 841 2894
CEO - AfriNIC                                   Fax: +27 (0)12 841 3203
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