Remote Hubs Official Proposal
Since the beginning of 2008 a group of Interested IGF participants from many civil society organizations has come together with the concern to propose mechanisms that could enhance remote participation in the IGF Hyderabad.
1) Objective:
To develop partnerships with regional organizations and communities with the aim to create local IGF hubs. These hubs would be local meetings, which would exhibit the webcast of the IGF as well as hold panels and roundtables, to discuss the themes of the IGF from a local perspective. This forum should serve as a stimulus or a starting point for the debate of local issues and implications and for the development of a network of interested people.
2) Some reasons that support the creation of hubs
2.1. Increases the visibility of the meeting. The local press will more likely cover a local event than one that takes place overseas. In addition to that, the engagement of civil society in organizing the hubs is a natural publicity and promotion that reaches all the larger local and regional community gathered around it.
2.2. Raises awareness. As a consequence of an increased visibility, the society in general becomes more aware of the importance of the subjects discussed at the IGF. The civil society plays an important role in getting in touch with possible stakeholders (NGO's, politicians, government representatives, economic sector, academics, etc) and convincing them of the importance of the subject and of their presence by being involved on the process.
2.3. Favors commitment. When a person solitarily watches a broadcasted meeting he/she feels free to drop it anytime and may never be involved with the subject again. When he's on the company of others and discusses the subject with them a sense of commitment with the group may flourish.
2.4. Favors community building. This sense of commitment can evolve into a structured relationship among stakeholders.
2.5. Provides networking. People can identify common interests and establish different kinds of partnerships. The hubs fully accomplish the second reason appointed here for people to be engaged on this experience.
2.6. Favors follow-up initiatives. People may feel motivated not only to follow the measures taken in the global sphere, but also to develop local actions. Through local discussion, people can agree on measures to take and share tasks and responsibility. This experience encourages collaboration and rises local initiatives.
3) Support provided to the local hubs
3.1) High quality webcast, and platform for interaction (DimDim), with technical assistance from the organizers.
3.2) Publicity for the hub in the organization homepage, in the project homepage as well as in preparatory meetings and discussion forums
4) Requirements to create a local hub
The hubs can be held by any group of interested people. Each local group can propose and develop a methodology for the meeting, according to its needs. In general, the organization of the hubs does not demand high investments of time and resources.
We suggest that the interested parties in organizing the hubs take the following into consideration:
4.1) A four day activity (3-6 of December), on flexible hours.
4.2) A room or auditorium. It can be held at an university class or any other convenient place in the city
4.3) a broadband Internet connection and a video-conference (or projector) equipment. (Internet2)
4.4) A server
4.5) Training with the DimDim platform, provided by the DimDim team
4.6) A moderator, who will plan the dynamics of the discussion
4.7) A general call in lists, forums, etc, to invite the local community interested in Information Society and Internet Governance
5) What are the modes of participation from the hubs in the IGF?
After the main webcast has been started from Hyderabad, all the Hubs can connect to the session at pre-defined dates/times. Each Hub will have a Meeting key that will have to be used to join in. The meeting keys for each day will be published and distributed to all Hubs at least 7 days before the start of the meeting.
1. Audio and Video will be transmitted over Dimdim from the Host location to all Hubs
2. If a Presentation is being given, the PDF/PPT file will be shared with all the Hubs. All Presentations to be shown over Dimdim will have to be handed over to the Host at least 2 days before the start of the event.
3. The Host can transmit a Hub Moderator’s Audio and Video selectively at any point of time. The speaker’s audio will be transmitted over Dimdim either through a Lapel microphone or through an open microphone which will pick up the audio from the environment.
4. All the Hub Moderators can chat with themselves and with the Host of the meeting through the Public chat feature.
5. When a Hub Moderator has a question, a private chat message will be sent to the Host and the Host will repeat the question on audio channel and/or Public chat and answer it.
6. Archives files of the chat and the main presentation will be made available as flash files (similar to YouTube files) and the URLs will be provided to Remote Participation Group. These files can be downloaded or uploaded into any place as desired by the group.
7. Remote Participation over Dimdim will be provided inside workshop rooms, but that will have to be moderated and managed by the organizers of these workshops. The URLs to get into these webmeetings will be provided to the hosts of these rooms to be distributed to all attendees of these virtual rooms. Roving Dimdim engineers in these rooms will provide technical support.
6) How to propose a new hub
Interested institutions who would like to set up a hub are invited to get in touch with the IGF Secretariat (igfatunog.ch)
For more information, please visit:
http://igf.wgig.org/cms/index.php/remoteparticipation
www.igfremote.com
mariliamaciel@gmail.com or gpaque@gmail.com
The Remote Participation Working Group:
Marília Maciel (Brazil) – Federal University of Santa Maria/DiploFoundation
Ginger Paque (Venezuela) – Member of the UN Association of Venezuela/Task Force on WSIS
Rafik Dammak (Tunisia) - DiploFoundation/Computer Engineer
Max Senges (USA) – Stanford Center for Internet and Society
Raquel Gatto (Brazil) – PUC São Paulo
Seiiti Arata (Brazil/Geneva) – DiploFoundation Community Facilitator
Rajesh Aggarwal (India) – IGF Hyderabad Organization
Nikhil Aggarwal (India) – IGF Hyderabad Organization
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