Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Bret Fausett, and I thank you for opening your meeting today widely to all interested persons. I am not a part of a government delegation. I am not a member of a recognized NGO. And I am not part of the non-profit sector that has identified itself as civil society. I am here because I use the Internet and I care deeply about its future. I hope you always will have a place for me and people like me who wish to participate in the activities of the IGF and lend their time and expertise to its work.
Mr. Chair, Before the lunch break you asked several questions. I would like to address two of them with very concrete suggestions.
You asked: Everyone accepts that the IGF should have a program committee or a steering committee, but how should this be accomplished? Who will pick the members of the steering committee? What is the process for their selection?
For this first year of the IGF, I'd like to recommend that shortly after the close of the meeting tomorrow, we issue an open call for expressions of interest to serve on the IGF's programme committee. I would also like to recommend that you, Mr. Chair, who has established himself as a respected, trusted leader of this process, select from among the statements, with the assistance and input of Secretary Kummer. I also would recommend that you supplement the list if necessary, again with the assistance of Secretary Kummer, to balance it in terms of geographic, cultural, and economic diversity and expertise.
You also asked: Should the IGF also have a perpetual virtual meeting online? What sorts of virtual forums should the IGF create to enable participation?
Yes, the IGF should always be open for contributions and always be open for discussion of the issues affecting Internet users. Interested persons should be able to contribute on their own time and in their own language. To manage this process, I would like to recommend that you appoint Internet Reporteurs, or list managers, to manage and steer the online discussions so they may move forward productively. Unmanaged open forums, unread by the leadership of the IGF, can quickly become black holes for public comment, creating the illusion of participation while providing no meaningful access to the IGF.
These reporteurs, who would work with the Secretariat of the IGF, would participate in the online forums and help find areas of consensus and highlight areas of disagreement for further work or discussion. Building an effective model for online participation will not be easy, but I believe that the IGF will be able to measure its long-term success by how well it uses the very Internet resources under discussion to move its work forward.
Thank you.
