Session
----------- Internet Governance with and for the Citizens: Setting the Agenda for IGF2020 -----------
Humanity deserves and asks for better governance. Both citizens and decision makers are ready to experiment with new approaches. Decisions taken on behalf of 7+ billion human beings require to augment the traditional expertise with the vision and experience of ordinary citizens that will enrich, legitimize and strengthen the decisions. New forms of political non-partisan dialogue between citizens, decision makers and experts are one of the most promising solutions to improve governance towards a more inclusive, more trustful and less divided society, at all levels, from local to global. By relying on such processes, decisions become more in tune with the complexity of our age, more legitimate and more sustainable. Decision makers gain in legitimacy, insights and transparency. Citizens enter the realm of complexity of decision making and get the feeling of being respected and considered by the political sphere. Both are strengthened by this unique interaction.
------------------------------------------ Bringing Citizens into Internet Governance ------------------------------------------
The Global Citizens’ Debate on the Future of Internet (https://www.wetheinternet.org) aims at opening a dialogue between the Internet Governance community and ordinary citizens of the world.
In June 2020, thousands of citizens selected to represent the diversity of their country will gather, inform themselves and discuss core questions related to the future of internet and articulate their wishes, concerns, arguments and opinions.
This full scale Dialogue will build upon a series of preliminary conversations and workshops organized in 13 countries on 4 continents in 2018 and 2019 that have raised topics that are of high concern to both citizens and decision makers.
---------------------- Goal of the Open Forum ----------------------
The Open forum aims at:
1. Presenting the results of the preliminary conversations and the workshops to the Internet Governance Community in order to transform them into actionable actions and discussions for the multi-stakeholder process.
2. Reflecting the method in order to improve it and to understand how to best integrate it in the Multi-stakeholder process in the coming years.
3. Launch the Full scale process for 2020.
---------------------- Program ----------------------
The Forum will be shaped as a participatory event: participants will sit at tables and discuss the results of the debate in order to transform them into actionable learnings and actions for them.
1. Opening (15’) Short presentation of project and process (Missions Publiques). Feedback from core partners of the Advisory Board and national partners of the project.
2. Discussion / Break-out groups (45’) Participants are randomly split into groups of 5 (maximum diversity). In each group, a facilitator and a note taker guide the discussion. They discuss the following questions (not exclusive): How do these results inspire me for my strategy, my advocacy, my position? What do they mean for us as a community? What are most meaningful results in relation with the IGF agenda?” Which discussions do they impulse, which actions?
3. Presentation of results of the groups and conclusion (30’) Participants gather in plenary, note takers present the key results of their group.
Online participation will be organized as a mirror of the f2f participation: 1. E-Opening (15’) The remote participants will be in a listening position and will be in the virtual room. Two of the feedback in the beginning will be delivered by remote participants: One organizer and one participant. 2. E-Discussion / E-Break-out groups (45’) Online participants will be invited to join virtual rooms (links will be provided at the beginning of the session - participants will be dispatched in function of the first letter of their country of origin). In each group, a facilitator and a note taker will guide the discussion. The virtual group will discuss the same two questions as the f2f groups. 3. E-Presentation of results of the groups and conclusion (30’) Online participants will join back the plenary, remote note takers will present the key results of their group.
Missions Publiques
Berger, Cathleen - Mozilla - Global - Private Sector
Castex, Lucien - Internet Society France - Civil Society
Cassa, Concettina - Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale - Italy - Government
Gatto, Raquel - ISOC - Global - Technical Community
Gerlach, Jan - Wikimedia Foundation - Civil Society
Eniola - World Economic Forum - Global - Other
Oyako, Arthur - African Freedom of Information Center - Uganda - Civil Society
Scialpi, Valentina - DG Connect - European Commission - Europe - International Organization
Senges, Max - Google - Germany - Private Sector
Shcherbovich, Andrey - National Research University, Higher School of Economics - Russian Federation - Academics
Nota Bene: see methodology: All participants to the Forum will be “speakers”. The list of persons below is the list of persons that are at the core of the process and will act as table facilitators and resource persons during the discussions. There will be no frontal input apart from the introduction. Berger, Cathleen - Mozilla - Global - Private Sector Bruns, Eike - Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie - Germany - Government Castex, Lucien - Internet Society France - Civil Society Cassa, Concettina - Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale - Italy - Government Cervellini, Silvia - Delibera Brazil - Brazil - Civil Society Farooque, Mahmud - Arizona State University CSPO - USA - Academics Gatto, Raquel - ISOC - Global - Technical Community Gerlach, Jan - Wikimedia Foundation - Civil Society Hussain, Faheem - School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University - Bangladesh - Civil Society Ikebe, Yasushi - Miraikan (Tokyo National Science Museum) - Japan - Academics Mafe, Eniola - World Economic Forum - Global - Other Oyako, Arthur - African Freedom of Information Center - Uganda - Civil Society Scialpi, Valentina - DG Connect - European Commission - Europe - International Organization Senges, Max - Google - Germany - Private Sector Shcherbovich, Andrey - National Research University, Higher School of Economics - Russian Federation - Academics We will invite to this event 5 participants of the Citizens Debates. They will be chosen so as to represent the 5 continents.
Morgane Fleury
GOAL 4: Quality Education
GOAL 5: Gender Equality
GOAL 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Report
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How can the multi-stakeholder discussion taking place at IGF can be reinforced by the inputs of a structured view of citizens of the world on the Future of the Internet?
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How can we address all the issues pointed out by ordinary citizens in a renewed decision model?
Participants to the Open Forum will critically comment the first results of the 5 Workshops implemented in 2019 by Missions Publiques and the project partners’ coalition in Rwanda, Japan, Brazil, Germany and in the Rohingya Refugee Camp of Cox Bazar (presentation video). Participants, within their spheres of influence, will discuss links between the policy they are conducting and the Global Citizens’ Dialogue’s results.
The discussion revolved around the three topics discussed during the Citizens’ dialogues; Disinformation, Digital Identity and Internet Governance. Within the broad spectrum of participants, ranging from UNESCO to Google, national partners, ISOC, the German Ministry of Economy and the World Wide Web Foundation, there was a broad agreement that having the voice of citizens within the IGF discussions is essential knowing that, as users, they will bear consequences of IGF’s discussions.
As citizens expressed their fears regarding the spread of disinformation worldwide, they pointed out education as the best tool to tackle disinformation. However, as crucial as education was seen by the participants, they believe that other problematics need to be considered to solve the disinformation issue. Disinformation can be spread by well-educated people; education isn’t a 100% efficient shield if it doesn’t come with critical thinking in back-up.
On digital identities’ governance, as citizens were keen on supporting a co-decision model, the need for a security/privacy coexistence, a renewed debate on encryption, as well as a strong authentication or an internet users’ license were discussed by the panellists. Moreover, in tune with the contract for the web’s recent launch by the World Wide Web Foundation, users’ responsibilities were mentioned as well as their rights to transparency and a greater understanding of the issues.
On the strength of these discussions, Antoine Vergne, on the behalf of Missions Publiques, announced the launch of the full-scale process. In June 2020, citizens’ dialogues will be implemented in 100+ countries.
More information: https://www.wetheinternet.org/
On the strength of these discussions, Antoine Vergne, on the behalf of Missions Publiques, announced the launch of the full-scale process. In June 2020, citizens’ dialogues will be implemented in 100+ countries.
There were roughly 40 participants present onsite, the gender balance was good.