[Icann-see] SEEDIG - Summary of the third virtual preparatory meeting and next steps

Sorina Teleanu sorina.teleanu at cdep.ro
Wed Mar 25 16:01:03 CET 2015


Dear all,

Please find attached (and copied below, for ease of reference) a summary of the third virtual preparatory meeting, that took place today. The summary also includes an outline of next steps and an open invitation for further feedback from members of this list.

I would like to thank those who participated in this meeting.

Best regards,

Sorina


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SEEDIG Virtual Planning Meeting III, 25 March 2015, Summary


Participants: Victoria Bitzova, Anelia Dimova, Lianna Galstyan, Narine Khachatryan, Valentina Pavel, Oksana Prykhodko, Sorina Teleanu.


I.          Outreach

Participants in the meeting discussed about approaches for further reaching out to potential SEEDIG attendees. Based on previous discussions among some members of the executive committee, it was suggested that invitations should be sent out to such potential attendees, using the template that was previously agreed upon. As a start, SEEDIG invitations will be sent to attendees in the Regional Internet Forum that took place in Belgrade in the beginning of March. The executive committee, in coordination with the EuroDIG Secretariat, will take this work forward.

Similar invitations could then be sent to other stakeholders from the region, based on suggestions from members of the mailing list.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications informed us that they are currently preparing invitations to be sent from the minister to homologue ministers in Europe (inviting participation from the ministries), as well as to other stakeholders in Bulgaria.


II.         Draft programme

1.         Way forward for further refining the programme

Version 3.1 of the SEEDIG draft programme was discussed during the meeting. There was agreement to accept the revisions made as a result of incorporating comments submitted in response to the call for input.

It was noted that there are still many blank spaces in the sessions’ outlines, especially with regards to names for possible key participants, moderators and rapporteurs. For efficiency reasons, and in order to speed up the preparatory process, it was agreed that the SEEDIG executive committee would further refine the sessions’ outlines and identify first options for each slot (key participant, moderator, remote moderator, rapporteur) in each sessions, building upon existing suggestions, and where needed, adding new names. Thus, for each speaking slot in each session, a “first option” speaker will be identified, and other names will be listed as alternatives. The same will be done for moderators and rapporteurs. A revised programme outline incorporating these revisions will be shared with the mailing list, after which the executive committee will start to contact key participants / moderators / rapporteurs.

2.         Invitation from the IGF to participate in IGF inter-sessional work

A discussion was also held on the invitation addressed by the IGF Secretariat and the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group to national and regional IGF initiatives. In short, the IGF this year is planning to take up more intense inter-sessional work. One of the tracks for such inter-sessional work is on “Policy menus for connecting the next billion” and the IGF initiatives have been invited to take up this subject at their meetings and discuss it, with a view to provide input to the IGF. The IGF will then draft an output document based on all contributions received and this will go into public consultations and several iterations up to the IGF meeting in Brazil. In Brazil, the revised outcome document would be presented and a form of endorsement would be sought from the wider IGF community.

Given this invitation, the question is whether SEEDIG can positively respond to it and identify a way in which to contribute to this IGF inter-sessional track. In this respect, several issues were discussed:
-          acting upon the invitation would send a positive signal about SEEDIG and would allow it to actively contribute to the IGF;
-          however, the challenge we now face is to identify how we could integrate discussions on “policies for connecting the next billion” into the SEEDIG programme, given that we already have a condense programme outline agreed upon
-          one option could be to propose a flash session for the EuroDIG on the topic of policies for bridging the digital divide. The constraint in this case is that a flash session is very short (only 30 min or so) and this would not give room for much debate.

It was agreed that we should look more into this issue and try to identify a way in which SEEDIG could respond to the IGF invitation.


III.        Pre-SEEDIG webinars/video

A previous proposal to organise webinar before SEEDIG was discussed during the meeting. In theory, such webinars could be held in the weeks prior to SEEDIG and they would take the form of introductions to some of the topics that are on the agenda of the event. Speakers who agree to participate in SEEDIG could also be invited to participate in the webinars.

While participants in the meeting agreed that, in theory, organising webinars would be a good idea, it was also underlined that there is a risk of not being able to ensure a critical mass of participants in such webinars.

A suggestion was made to try to prepare a video compiling brief statements from several SEEDIG speakers (on their participation in SEEDIG, on the topic of their intervention in SEEDIG, etc). This video can then act as a teaser and be used in the outreach efforts. Another proposal was to prepare a set of “frequently asked questions” which would explain the aim and scope of SEEDIG, to be used also in the outreach activities. Both proposals were positively received and it was agreed that they should be further discussed, with the aim of putting them into practice.


IV.        Next steps


  1.  the executive committee to report back to the list with a revised programme, in accordance with point II.1 above; after that, potential key participants to be contacted and progress to be periodically reported to the list;
  2.  invitations to be sent by the executive committee to various stakeholders in the region, in accordance with point I above;
  3.  further explore the ideas of pre-SEEDIG webinars/video and input into IGF inter-sessional work;
  4.  a fourth virtual meeting to be held once the programme outline is further developed.

Meanwhile, members of the mailing list are welcomed to:

-          provide their input on the invitation from the IGF Secretariat to participate in the inter-sessional track on “Policy menus for connecting the next billion”;
-          coordinate with the executive committee if formal SEEDIG invitations are needed for certain stakeholders;
-          make suggestions for key participants in the sessions, especially where no suggestion exist at the moment.




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