Re: [npoc-voice] I-Inform Alliance

[Alain Berranger <alain.berranger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear NPOC Colleagues,

I have personally  given a lot of early support to the development of this
idea - the i-INFORM Alliance.

It is the brain child of Klaus Stoll, NPOC's Membership Committee Chair and
one of NPOC's most active Member since NPOC became an ICANN Constituency in
2011.

So, it will come as no surprise if I tell you that I think the i-INFORM
Alliance is not only badly needed, but in fact timely and critical to the
sustained credibility of all bodies and institutions and organizations
involved in one way or the other in Internet Governance, including ICANN
and the ITU.

I submit to our collective wisdom the proposal that NPOC elects to be a
founding member of the i-INFORM Alliance. I think it dovetails extremely
well with our mission and vision to increase civil society's role and place
in ICANN and in the Internet Governance landscape in general.

It would be great if we had a good discussion here so that we all agree as
to how best to move NPOC forward. Does it help NPOC to play a founding role
in i-INFORM Alliance, or would we be biting too much at the same time and
we should simply monitor i-INFORM Alliance, given all our other tasks?

Looking forward to your views. We can also start the discussion next
Tuesday at our NPOC  monthly call.

Warm regards, Alain

On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 3:41 PM, klaus.stoll <klaus.stoll@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

>   Dear Friends
>
>  Greetings and I trust you all had a good Holiday Season and a great
> start to the New Year.
>
>  There have been a lot of developments in Internet Governance in the last
> month, and if one thing has become clear it is that the old structures need
> support and input to get the job done. A lot of thinking has taken place
> and one of the results is the creation of the I-Inform Alliance. I have
> attached the draft 2.1 of the alliance below and I want to invite you to
> comment freely on it. I also would like to invite NPOC to become a founding
> and key member of the alliance and I therefor propose that we might discuss
> the alliance at the NPOC monthly call next week. If you and your
> organization would like to become active in I-Inform please let me know and
> I also would appreciate any suggestions that concern how to support the
> establishment and running of the alliance in practical terms. I-Inform is
> badly needed and it needs to hit the ground running in order to get its job
> done.
>
>  Yours
>
>  Klaus
>
>
> *I-Inform Alliance*
>
> Draft 2.1
>
> *Internet Governance today*
>
> **
>
> Internet Governance(IG), has been likened to a country where 0.1% are in
> charge of 99.9% of the population. 99.9% of Information Technologies(IT)
> users are uninformed consumers. In the case of IG, the vast  majority of
> IT users are completely ignorant even of its existence. This is not just a
> problem for the 99.9% that are disempowered and voiceless, it is an even
> bigger problem for the 0.1% concerned with the structural integrity and
> safety, regulation, policy making and governance of modern ITs. The
> legitimacy and effectiveness of IG is in direct proportion to the ability
> to create general awareness and engagement of IT users. The biggest
> challenge for all those concerned with IG today is the lack of awareness
> and engagement of the vast majority of IT users.
>
>
>
> ITs have become a global public good; they have become a “common”, an
> instrument for human existence and development of highest importance and
> value. A global public common such as the ITs, can only function when all
> stakeholders are able to participate effectively in them. IG has to
> become a topic of common debate and interest for everybody like peace, the
> environment and climate change are today. IG becomes a topic of
> widespread interest and importance when the users of IT understand that it
> is IG in all its aspects that is keeping the network running and the
> technologies developing.**
>
>
>
> Many organizations, conscious of the importance of IG, have taken on the
> challenge of raising awareness and engaging the general public in IG, but
> no initiative has yet the desired and necessary impact. ITs and its users
> are one big cosmos; whilst individual IG stakeholders and their
> initiatives, however big and global they are, can cover only specific
> aspects of IG that are in their direct remit. In doing so, they are only
> able to reach a tiny proportion of the overall IT users. What is necessary
> is the ability to engage with vast numbers of IT users globally and to
> convey the message of the critical significance of IG for all.
>
>
>
> A pre-requisite for effective awareness building and engagement in IG on a
> large global scale are joint initiatives that bring together many IG
> stakeholders with their different motivations, roles, functions and
> abilities. Such joint IG initiatives need a collaborative stage on which
> they can be initiated, sourced and coordinated.
>
> **
>
> **
>
> *I-Inform*  *is an alliance for collaborative large scale IG awareness
> building and engagement with  IT users everywhere.*
>
>
>
> *Vision: *
>
> To inform and educate the global general public about all aspects of IG in
> order to enable engagement, participation and informed decision making.
>
>
>
> *Mission:*
>
> To unite all Internet Governance Stakeholders in a collaborative alliance
> that enables them to upscale, create and implement large scale IG awareness
> building and engagement initiatives for IT users everywhere.
>
> **
>
> *I-Inform**: **Proposed Activities*
>
> ·         To bring together all IG stakeholders to share the need to
> raise awareness and engagement of the global general public in all aspects
> of IG.
>
> ·         To act as a platform that allows IG stakeholders to interchange
> and disseminate information IG related information freely.
>
> ·         To enable partnering with, and up-scaling of existing IG
> initiatives.
>
> ·         To enable alliances to implement on a large scale new
> collaborative IG awareness building and engagement initiatives.
>
> ·         To act as a depository of available IG materials.
>
> ·         To act as a multiplication, dissemination and distribution
> channel for all matters IG related.
>
> ·         To act as a one stop shop for all information available on
> current IG issues.
>
> ·         To act as a point of engagement, interchange and collaboration
> between IG stakeholders and the world media.
>
> ·         To promote and engage in innovation and creation of new IG
> awareness building and engagement activities.
>
>
>
> *I-Inform**:** **Expected Outcomes*
>
> **
>
> ·         Large scale awareness building and engagement of the general
> public in IG issues.
>
> **
>
> ·         INFORMED IT Users will make INFORMED choices that will result
> in INFORMED policy making and result in the sustained development of the
> common good of IT’s.
>
> **
>
> ·         Strengthening and renewal of those organizations engaged with
> IG. As more people know about the role and importance of IG, more people
> will engage with it. As more people engage and participate in IG existing
> governance structures will reevaluate and reform themselves, based on the
> much broader input, in an organic ongoing process. This process of
> renewal will not be a revolutionary one but an ongoing process of
> evaluation and reform that is based on broad participation of all
> stakeholders. An informed general public will lead to organic changes and
> reform in the organizations themselves that will make them more stable,
> effective and relevant.
>
>
>
> ·         Strengthening the IG Ecosystem. Organisations active in
> I-Inform will have a platform that allows them to informally work and act
> together and in this way learn to understand and respect each other which
> results in a strengthened overall IG ecosystem
>
>
>
> ·         Creation of win/win situations. The biggest argument for the
> alliance is that everybody that engages with it is winning, as everybody
> and all sectors engaged will achieve outcomes that are beneficial for them. 
> The
> participation and support of the campaign is in the self interest of all IG
> stakeholders.
>
>
>
>
>
> *I-Inform**: **Rules of Engagement*
>
> **
>
> ·         The Alliance is open to all Internet Stakeholders that share
> the goal to inform and educate the global general public about all aspects
> of IG.
>
>
>
> ·         The Alliance is outcome and impact orientated.
>
>
>
> ·         The Alliance strives to achieve its goals with a minimum of
> formal organizational structures and overheads. The Alliance will start
> and stay as a virtual organization and not strive to become a new formal
> organization.
>
> **
>
> ·         The members of the Alliance have different roles and functions
> but share a single goal.  Different stakeholders in IG have different
> roles, functions and policies; some are mainly interested to manage a
> “common”, the stable root system, others basically represent national
> interests whilst another group is looking out for the right conditions for
> the Internet to be used as the basis of economic development and growth.
> What unites them all in the I-Inform Alliance is the urgent need for
> collaborative large scale IG awareness building and engagement with IT
> users everywhere.
>
> **
>
> ·         The I-Inform Alliance has no policy making role, membership in
> the alliance does not indicate agreement with specific policies of, or
> automatic affiliation with, other alliance members.
>
> **
>
> **
>
> *I-Inform **:** Steps of Implementation and Timelines*
>
> **
>
> The alliance needs to be initially coordinated and organized by a neutral
> organization that has interest, mandate, experience and capacity to do so.
> This organisation is the Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation (GKPF).
>
>
>
> GKPF will execute the creation and management of I-Inform under its
> “e-readiness and capacity building” working area.
>
>
>
> *Next steps:*
>
>
>
> 1.       *A call to arms,* (Jan-March 2013)
>
>         In this time the following main steps will be undertaken:
>
> a)      Refinement of I-Inform concept and promotional materials
>
> b)      Registration of I-Inform domain and creation of www site
>
> c)       Creation of I-Inform discussion list (initially on GKPF www site)
>
> d)      Informal talks with heads and key players of relevant IG
> organizations; these talks will have to include conceptual and
> implementation issues, funding considerations and commitments and
> governance.
>
> e)      Dissemination of I-Inform Promotional material.
>
>
>
> 2.       *Collecting expressions of interest and support* (Jan
> 2013-ongoing)
>
>         The I-Inform promotional materials will include a call to express
> institutional and           individual interest and support of the
> alliance.
>
>
>
> 3.       *Implementation of a Alliance Core group* (March/April 2013)**
>
>                       After the initial talks with organizations and
> received indications of interest and support a I-       Informed
> implementation core group should be formed. The core group should use
> conference calls to discuss the further promotion and planning and in
> particular start preparing a business plan…
>
>
>
> 4.       *First Alliance Planning* meeting resulting in a two day
> I-Inform inaugural meeting in Spring 2013. Possible meeting host are IICD
> (The Hague, The Netherlands) or CTIC (Gijon, Asturias, Spain). The task of
> the inaugural meeting will be to create a strategic and business plan draft
>
>
>
> 5.       *I-Inform Alliance Plan of action and Plan of implementation*.**
>
>
>
>
>
>
>



-- 
Alain Berranger, B.Eng, MBA
Member, Board of Directors, CECI,
http://www.ceci.ca<http://www.ceci.ca/en/about-ceci/team/board-of-directors/>
Executive-in-residence, Schulich School of Business, www.schulich.yorku.ca
Treasurer, Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation, www.gkpfoundation.org
NA representative, Chasquinet Foundation, www.chasquinet.org
Chair, NPOC, NCSG, ICANN, http://npoc.org/
O:+1 514 484 7824; M:+1 514 704 7824
Skype: alain.berranger


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