[IGFmaglist] Seek for Approval - Newcomer track proposal

[Bianca Ho]

 Dear fellow MAG Members,


We have gathered your comments, and came up with the final proposal for the
newcomer track.

Your suggestions are added in blue, while ours reflection are made in red.

Please note that this years' Newcomers Track will have the full assistance
and support of the IGF Secretariat, meaning that the coordination of the
activities will be conducted directly by the Secretariat.

We would appreciate your comments and approval by* this Sunday 9th Oct,
15:00 pm UTC*, as it is crucial to have a final decision on this as soon as
possible, so that the work activities can take place, due to the short time
between now and Meeting dates.

For any questions, do not hesitate to contact.


Best regards,

Bianca, Laura and Anja


*IGF2016 Newcomers Track*

*Proposal to the IGF MAG*

*Updates version, 30 September 2016*



*About *



As the IGF’s mandate is extended for the next 10 years, participation is
critical for developing, enriching and implementing the intersessional
work. Bringing new experts and fresh ideas to the global IGF is equally
important to enrich these discussions and to ensure all sectors and regions
are well represented. Alongside implementing the global IGF’s outcomes on a
national and regional level, enhancing local discussions are also a crucial
aspect. Thus, outreach and people-focused capacity building should be the
IGF’s focus. Communities on all levels need to have a broader understanding
of the Internet Governance (IG) processes in order to be fully engaged in
the overall IGF work and help spread the message and impact of the IGF.
Outreach to different interested stakeholders and communities regarding the
IGF intersessional work is key to its continued success.

Historically, the IGF has not gathered data on the number of newcomers who
participate each year at its annual meetings. In order to allow these stats
to be tracked and improved on, it is recommended to insert an additional
field in the online Registration Form for the Newcomers to indicate if it
is their first IGF Meeting.

It is also suggested that the Newcomers should also receive a badge with a
visible colour mark on it, in order to identify them as Newcomers and
encourage more experienced IGF participants to help integrate them into
community, and make their first IGF experience as productive and welcoming
as possible.



It was suggested to develop an IGF2016 application that will help in
facilitating the Newcomers identification.

Taking into account the current capacity that the MAG and the IGF
Secretariat have, as well as the short time period between the present
moment and meeting dates, it does not seem feasible to develop an
application. However, the Secretariat could adjust the interactive schedule
so that it has a section only for the Newcomers to upload their photo,
provide a short bio of themselves and indicate their interests. By
subscribing to the individual sessions, the organizers can have the
pre-session information on who will be attending their sessions and can
assist in engaging more the Newcomers.



*Proposed Logistics*



The Proposed activities are aiming for continuous activities over all five
days of the IGF, including Day 0, as described below. The intention is to
be fully inclusive in this work, thus a series of dedicated sessions will
be developed, as explained below. As there are concerns that having only
on-site sessions might have an exclusive impact on the participants that
will come later to the venue, or more importantly, the interested
participants that would like to be involved and informed on this way, but
cannot attend in person, a set of pre-meeting briefing packages will be
created and shared online with the wider community, two weeks before the
meeting dates. These briefing packages might also help the Newcomers to
engage better with the IGF and become encouraged to attend, on-site or
online, for the future time being.

Online participation should be available within all proposed sessions.

Online Registration Features



After the deadline of the registration, organizers will reach out to the
registered Newcomers and provide the following:



- Explain the Newcomers Track with its objectives and how they can benefit;

- Confirm if  they wish to receive colour coded badges to indicate their
“Newcomers” status, with explaining the purpose, which is to ease access of
assistance and guidance during the IGF;

- Ask if they want to  opt out of the “Newcomers” Track

- Explain the option in interactive online IGF Schedule to submit a profile
photo and a summary of their biography, indicating their interest



*Newcomers Badges*



This could either be colour coded or they could receive ribbons which they
can pin on or keep as souvenirs.



When Newcomers register and when they pick up their bags, they can also
receive personalized letters of welcome jointly signed by the MAG Chair and
Host Country. This can be mail merged so that “logistics” automatically
prints or emailed out by the host country


*Day 0: Mentor Session *

This is intended to be a 90-minute session, where representatives of the
IGF Secretariat and MAG Members will begin by explaining the history of the
IGF, and its main principles and working modalities in order for the
newcomers to be able to understand the background, and how the
multi-stakeholder model is being implemented in practice.



After this introduction segment (of approximately 20 minutes), the rest of
the session will be a substantive one, focusing on the overall theme, as
well as the thematic workshops, BPFs and other main sessions.

The last segment of the session will be a Q&A section, and will invite the
participants to ask questions and express any suggestions and comments they
may have.

It was suggested by one MAG member for this session to be shorter, of
60-minutes length. However, as there will be introduction by the MAG and
the IGF Secretariat, we are of an opinion that it is better to keep it of
90 minutes length, so that there is enough time for the Participants to ask
questions.

It was suggested and supported by some of the MAG Members to invite the
facilitators of the IGF2016 main sessions to introduce the objectives of
their sessions to the Newcomers.

Full support of this idea, in terms that the facilitators come and present
their objectives in a 3 minutes presentation.

It was suggested to contact the partner organizations that have different
types of programs for bringing the Newcomers to the IGF (e.g. ISOC, ICANN
etc.)

The initial idea is for the Secretariat to conduct the outreach and
necessary coordination with all organizations that might have these types
of programs.

It was suggested to add a mentor matrix.

We can leverage the existing resource person to achieve this.



*Meeting Days: Knowledge Cafe Sessions*

On the regular meeting days, during the lunch period, there will be a 45-60
minute informal session open to all Newcomers. The proposed idea is for the
Participants to have close interaction with some of the experienced
stakeholders from the IGF community and to discuss the IGF processes,
substantive issues and ways of engagement for them. The aim is to create a
more intimate and relaxing atmosphere, where networking and sharing
experiences will be easier than the large day 0 session. The knowledge café
sessions will also have remote participation.



There was one comment that indicated that it would be desirable if Mentors
would be the co-facilitators of the IGFs Main/Focus Sessions. If this
comment was aiming for the Knowledge Cafes Sessions, we are of an opinion
that we need to be fully inclusive in terms of wider IGF expert community.
Thus, a plan should be developed about mapping the specific themes that
should be covered during the Meeting days. The Secretariat will coordinate
with wider community about engaging experts in these activities, aiming to
have more mentors from similar thematic expert field to cover one day.
These activities will be on English language. We take a good note of having
MAG Member already applied to be engaged in these activities (Slobodan and
Alejandra).

One MAG Member already suggested to help coordinating with private sector
their engagement in these activities.  Another MAG member offered to
simultaneously  translate certain session to Spanish.

This is of a great help and the Secretariat will further coordinate on
this. It can be an example for other MAG Members to assist in a similar way.



We would like to add that it is important to have a set of continuing
information activities throughout the whole Meeting, with the aim to bring
closer the complex process of the IGF to the Newcomers.



*Newcomers Booth *



The proposed activity would be to collaborate with all booths in the IGF
Village (total number: 39) to put a Welcome Newcomers' signs on their
stands.

It has also been suggested to have a dedicated newcomer lounge. The
"Welcome Newcomer" sign should already be sufficient, plus we want to make
sure they mingle with more experienced attendees of IGF, but not by
themselves.



*Welcoming Material *



A welcoming material for the Newcomers should be developed. A 2-pager
information material and online material will have a short overview of the
IGF processes and will address the ways for them to engage and benefit from
the IGF. This could be made available to all (new) participants on
registration.

Prior to attending the IGF, a public call for all newcomers will be
launched, to send their questions. These will be gathered together into a
list of Q&A and shared with all Participants using the mailing list. These
Q&A list will be integrated in the welcoming, information material, as
well. It is desirable to organize a series of webinars for introduction (or
Q&A sessions), prior to the Meeting, to be shared with the participants and
wider community. The webinars will be focused on the organizational
principles of the global IGF.



Sample webinar topics can include:



1. Introduction to the IGF (high level introduction) [This Could be a Video
Documentary for  up to 5 minutes]

2. History and Context of IGF (Summary) and give out links to resources

3. Introduction and Overview of Intersessional activities;

4. How to Maximise your IGF Experience?

5. How to Maximise Online Participation?

6. Questions and Answers





*Immediate Action plans: *

1. Collaborate with the Working Group on Communication and Outreach for
defining the outreach plan

2. Creating a mailing list for the IGF Newcomers

3. Pre-event briefing packets: Prepare scenarios for webinars and content
for information materials. Develop all materials, format and make available
to the participants and the wider community
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