[IGFmaglist] IGF 2015 Themes and Sub-themes

[Michael R. Nelson]

My homework:
I STRONGLY believe that themes and subthemes need to be very short and memorable.  If you don't limit buzzwords to 3-5 syllables and "bumper stickers" to 7-8 words, reporters and everyone else will come up with their own shorthand for your theme.  When President Ronald Reagan proposed the "Strategic Defense Initiative" to shoot down Soviet nuclear missile, reporters (and opponents) immediately labelled it "Star Wars," a name that helped kill the program. I always suggest that my students read two books on the power of short, evocative words:"Microstyle--The Art of Writing Little" and 
"Words that Work"
My suggestions:

MAIN THEME:"Building a Trustworthy Net"or"A Trusted Internet for Peace and Prosperity"or"A Trustworthy Net for Peace, Jobs, and Freedom" 
SUBTHEMES:Connections (or Access)InnovationPeace-buildingRightsTrust (or Security)DiversityContent
INTER-SESSIONAL WORKI fully support the excellent ICC BASIS proposal to focus on policies to "enable the next billion online."  This is broad enough to interest everyone involved in the IGF but focused enough to lead to real tangible results.  I think the national and regional IGFs, WITSA members, and the ISOC chapters will be much more useful than the dynamic coalitions for spurring this work.
BEST PRACTICESI do not believe that we need to continue topics that we worked on last year--in some cases it would make more sense to return to them in 2016.IXPsEncryptionHate speechIPv6Fostering multistakeholder collaboration online (a narrower piece of the Multistakeholder topic)
I STRONGLY agree with Towela that "sustainable development" is overused and has been defined in far too many ways.-and it's too long.  In Silicon Valley, "sustainable" means you generate profits (not that you preserve the planet.)  
 MICHAEL R. NELSON
Adjunct Professor, Internet Studies Communication, Culture and Technology Program
CCT Program, Georgetown University
Washington, DC
703-598-5187 cell
Twitter: @MikeNelson 

     On Wednesday, December 3, 2014 12:55 AM, Towela Nyirenda-Jere <towelajere at yahoo.com> wrote:
   

 Dearall,   I support the following sub-themes:  

·       Human rights

·       Content creation (focusing on enablingconditions)

·       Regional IGFs  (as suggested by Avri, with fine-tuning on thefocus/wording)

·       Gender (with fine-tuning on the focus/framing)


I would also propose sub-themes addressing the following:


·       Cross-border connectivity and services

·        Multi-lingualism

·       Affordable Access

·       Connecting with policy spaces



On Best-Practice Forums, I support continuing the work on“Developing meaningful multi-stakeholder mechanisms”. I also think we shouldallow sufficient time for the documents and concepts to “mature” and wouldsuggest that we not rush to cycle in new themes each year; I would recommendthat themes should run for 2 years with half of the themes cycling out eachyear. Considering that there seems to be some agreement that the BPF documentson “Combatting  Spam” and on “CSIRTs” arecomplete,  I would propose that weintroduce two themes to replace these and retain the other three for anotheryear. 
I also support making remote participation a priority,with emphasis on the quality of the participation channels, inclusiveness inthe various sessions (session organisers should dedicate time for remoteinterventions and not deal with them as an after-thought). I would also urgefor more forward planning for the remote hubs including sensitization andout-reach to enable people to set up remote hubs (my experience this year wasthat people have different understandings of remote hubs and getting all thepieces together requires more lead time than what was provided, especially forfirst-timers.)
Regarding the main theme, I support the idea of a themethat considers the progression from WSIS to-date and that also has connotationsof looking ahead.  I would supportretaining the first part of Jandyr’s proposal “Advancing the InternetGovernance Ecosystem” (the second part seems to discount everything thathappened prior to NetMundial).   Anothersuggestion for consideration:
“A decade of Internet Governance: looking back to moveforward”  OR 
“A decade of Internet Governance: finding our way forward”(which incorporates Avri’s suggestion) 
I am not in support of a main theme that uses “sustainabledevelopment” - I think the phrase is over-used.   regards,
Towela Towela Nyirenda-Jere, PhD

Current Address:
c/o NEPAD Agency
e-Africa Programme
International Business Gateway
Midrand 1685

Tel.: +27 11 256 3587
Mobile: +27 74 180 5764 
Skype: towela.jere
Check out my professional profile and connect with me on LinkedIn. http://lnkd.in/sWtm8y  Permanent Address:
P.O. Box 31759
Blantyre 3,
MALAWI
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