[Chapter-delegates] Fwd: Is the Civil Society doing enough to bring about a balance in Internet Governance Policy positions?

[sivasubramanian muthusamy]

Shared in the Chapter Delegates list, as a workshop proposal (in progress)
that may be of interest to Chapter members with an interest in Civil
Society positions.  I wish to request suggestions for participation in the
panel of this workshop being proposed.

Thank you.

Hello,


With a few hours remaining for submission of the 2019 workshops, I intend
to propose a workshop.  Looking for support, 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withdrawn, only to be reintroduced and confirmed by some other title or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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