The following are the outputs of the real-time captioning taken during an IGF virtual call. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: We'll get started in just a moment. Maybe you can help me with something. I arrived in Paris this morning and I'm in a hotel and the Internet has gone down. I don't know when it is going to be back up. I'm using the phone. I am having a hard time seeing both the chat and the screen with the queue. Maybe once we approve the agenda, I don't know, Luis, if there is a way to change it, if we are going to just show the agenda, we don't need to display it the entire time. If it is just me and kind of the mobile application here.
>> LUIS BOBO: For the queue, for the agenda of this call maybe you can call the people, take the floor for this time, maybe you can just jump in if we make it that way. I don't know if that will work. I assume it is going to be difficult for you if I describe to you the queue or something.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Let's leave it so that it works well for everyone else and I will toggle back and forth between the queue and the chat. Just the screen doesn't seem to be working in my favor at the moment of what's possible here. And if I am missing something critical either in the chat or in the queue with hand up, we will just ask somebody to call that out to me. It is early in some parts of the world and late in some others.
The first item is adoption of the agenda. And also requires whether there are any other items under AOB. Doing a slow count to six, I am not seeing any. We will call the agenda approved. And then again I was just saying I am in Paris. I arrived today for a series of meetings, which I can give a brief update on to date a little bit later but I'm struggling a little bit. The Internet is down in the hotel here. So I'm going through a mobile phone, if people can just help me if I am missing something critical in the chat or in the speaking queue, it would be greatly appreciated.
So let me first see if there are any additional updates from the Secretariat and then we'll go to the host country preparations. And if there is anything that I can add to that based on the few meetings that I have here already then I would be so do so afterwards.
But are there any updates from the Secretariat? Eleonora? Luis. Anja is also on the call.
>> ELEONORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi it is Eleonora from the Secretariat. I think any really interesting updates that we would have to give are very tied to the host country updates. I will just note that since our last meeting a couple of weeks ago the schedule has since been published. That's a fairly big element of our planning. I think many MAG members have had the chance to take a look at it. The version that's posted online now which is in PDF or Excel spreadsheet version we will be transferring very soon on to a web based interactive platform that Luis has actually. And that a lot of testing has shown is well received and successful and will replace the sched platform that we were using previously. If he wants to and if necessary, Luis can expand on that, too.
Since our last meeting the host country website has also been launched. And we sent notices about both the schedule and the host country website through the mailing list and to the MAG list. We hope many people have had the chance to see those and what these are helping with their planning.
>> ANJA GENGO: This is Anja from the Secretariat. On the registration, just for the information of the MAG, we are very close to reaching 2000 participants online and we would like to ask kindly the MAG members to distribute within their respectful networks information that the online registration is mandatory. There will be an option to register on site and we actually do have a very good meeting with our colleagues. But many MAG members probably remember how to (inaudible) register on site in Geneva last year. And I don't think it is going to be an exception this year. We encourage everyone to register online and we will send a couple of reminders through the list tomorrow as well to the MAG. We will just ask for the participants. And also on the IGF village, just to say that yesterday and today we shared with the organizers two final informations. So tomorrow through the MAG list once we consolidate all the information through the website we will share with the MAG list as well. And we will kindly ask the MAG members to share with their respective communities. Just for your information the final number of the approved board is 66 and the setup will be very similar to the Geneva setup last year. Thank you. That would be all.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you.
>> LUIS BOBO: Two quick notes. One is that the site information is advancing and thanks for the collaboration from some members. There is some (inaudible). That's one thing. The second thing is just complimenting what my colleagues have said, on the remote hubs we still have only almost 20, something like that. Still three weeks of time that we have had like around 40 in previous years. So again we have some calls. Maybe you want to extend your networks, a call for remote hubs. It is always available.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Luis. Could I ask Deniz and WaiMin if there are any updates? I know the call for MAG seats closed a week or so ago, but as matter of form, are there any updates or anything that you would like to share?
>> WaiMin: Yes, hello. WaiMin here from UNDESA. I don't have anything specific to share. Just that we have received the nominations together with the Secretariat. We are putting all the names together and we will certainly put the private consideration of those being put forward by the stakeholder groups because there is a process, especially from the social society, the technical community and also Governments to the focal points in Geneva. So that is ongoing. We are still very much like to have the 2019 MAG will be announced before the Paris before doing the Paris IGF.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, WaiMin. Maybe the only other thing I would add to that is in discussion that you and I had with (inaudible) who is the DESA lead for the IGF, he also reiterated the importance of getting the MAG appointees done in a timely manner with the Secretary General's office. And they have all agreed to work together to make sure that happens in a timely manner. I think that's that's very good progress.
There is a question from Mary and we will come to the host country preparations. I have understood that someone is going to be on. So I see that they are not here yet. But I will inform as we can and we will get the additional updates as they are arriving. Mary had a question which is the confirmation letter sent to the registrants.
>> ANJA GENGO: This is Anja. If I may jump in on that question. So until 3 p.m. we have approved all the registrations that were received and then tomorrow we will approve first thing in the morning the ones that came after 3 p.m. All the participants that are registered should receive on their e mail the confirmation of their approval. That is the official invitation letter. Can also be used any other purposes needed. In case there is maybe an issue if you didn't receive your confirmation letter then we would kindly ask if you could write to either me or IGF or just send a note. We will gladly resend that confirmation e mail. Thank you, Mary. I hope this is good.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Mary, if you have a follow up question, just come back and I see members are waiting for a confirmation letter for the visa. If you follow that up offline with Anja.
And attached the MAG meeting will be the day before or the day after the IGF? At this point there is no plan for a MAG meeting with the IGF. We would have to extend it out to at least two days before the IGF if we were to do that given all the events on the Sunday that both require some presence of some of the MAG members and I think additional setup a meeting. And I think just with appointment of this the current the incoming MAG coming sort of ahead or during the MAG wouldn't be time to get them all organized and there in person, and, of course, the current MAG is "stood down" at the end of this IGF meeting. So I think that everyone is thinking in between, in the background here is that we could perhaps have one or two sort of transition calls between the current MAG with the new incoming MAG members and sort of brief on brief on the work but that we wouldn't try to squeeze in the MAG. I think that actually confuses roles because we can't have the new MAG members there and we can have a couple of meetings.
One where we do a debrief of this IGF and all the year's activities with the current MAG as we actually work towards a transition to the new MAG but there wasn't a formal MAG meeting scheduled.
And Timea has another question in the chat.
>> ANJA GENGO: It is Anja again. I just responded to Timea and other colleagues. We will publish the list of registered and approved and we will follow up on the list and where it is positioned on the IGF website.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Excellent. Thank you. And to Ben's question in the chat room as well, yes, I think we need to plan. Again this needs to be worked with DESA and the Secretariat and the appropriate space found. But I personally would advocate quite hard for a meeting early in the new year so that we can get some of the work that was kind of started this year and is left over continuing. And also I think take quite a strategic look at the work of the MAG and kind of efforts across the community, IGF Intersessional activities given we now have the time.
And WaiMin is saying it would be difficult to get the new MAG members to Paris in the time frame we are looking at and we do have the continuing budget issues as well.
So what maybe we can do is start a thread on the list which is really I think taking a look at what the current MAG would find helpful and useful in terms of capturing all the experiences and learnings or whatever activities we think we would recommend with respect to transitioning and how that actually happens. Maybe it makes sense to have one virtual MAG meeting focusing on learning and experience from this past year and we can pull that in to the other introductory activities that we have scheduled for the current for the incoming MAG. So let's work on getting that getting that organized going forward.
Just quickly scanning here again to see if there is anybody on the French. There isn't. Let me do a couple of quick updates. As I said earlier I am in France. I survived today. I am here to meet with individuals, the managing directors of various activities such as the Paris Peace Forum, the Gulf Tech Summit and various people from the organizing committee from the IGF, with the UNESCO folks and the French NRI and a number of other meetings such as the French Digital Council which is very similar in sort of responsibilities to the CGIW for those of you that are familiar with that. So there will be updates and reports coming as those meetings occur.
What I do know and David sent a letter, sent a letter to the MAG this morning is that there had been some question as to who would fulfill the host country co Chair role given that David was being reposted. He will not leave for that post as quickly as he thought and he will be responsible for the IGF through the IGF. And I think you have already seen some additional activity here as well from him. So I think that's very good news because he, of course, was a person who championed this within France, within the French Government. So I think he will help us to move things along very quickly.
He also mentioned in his note that both the IGF 2018 Paris Peace Forum and the Gulf Tech Summit are a part of something they are calling a Paris digital week. He was encouraging all IGF participants to also look at the other two events and will it make sense to participate. I have had one discussion with respect to what that participation would look like and, you know, how we can make this more clear to IGF participants. And I would actually like to review some of those with David and his team before sharing that out. So we will certainly do that and should be able to get that out by the end of the week. It might be late on Friday given the way the meetings are scheduled.
He also mentioned in his note that he is working on a very high level session on Day One. I think they have taken the decision that given the Paris Peace Forum kicking off on the Sunday and right now they are expecting about 50 to 60 Heads of State at that event. Significantly smaller event than the IGF, that, of course, ties up many of the senior people and, you know, any of the Ministers that would actually be supporting them. And that combined with all the Armetest day events on Sunday and UNESCO is planning an Artificial Intelligence event and it wasn't possible to do a "high level meeting" on the Sunday. And what they are trying to do is to accommodate various schedules and obviously integrate with the IGF activities as well as possible.
So the exact sort of structure and format is still under discussion. We are expecting a representative from the Government of France and we are also hopeful a very senior representative from the United Nations would actually be a part of that High Level Event on the Monday after the IGF.
That particular component of it right now rough planning is scheduled from 5 to 7 and from 3 to 5. It might be a panel or something similar to what was done at the IGF. But again these are all very preliminary. And really need to complete some of the meetings here this week and hear from David and his team. I have been getting a lot of questions offline will there be a High Level Event and what time slot and people are trying to line up all their senior representatives as well.
Let me just stop there for a moment and see if there are any more questions specifically on that. The questions I have heard are is there one and if so what day and what time frame. And a what's being envisaged. We will be more separate at this point. Not expecting a separate High Level Event on a Sunday. The Opening Ceremony combined with the High Level Event will be on Monday afternoon from 3 to 7 and from 5 to 7 is when some of the very senior representatives would be expected to address. And we are hopeful to participate in an open dialogue as well.
Is there any questions or anybody asking for the floor? I don't see anybody on the speaking queue. Again I have had a couple of meetings here today but the next two days are packed with meetings. So we will have a lot more to report the end of the week.
WaiMin or Deniz, is there anything from your perspective that you would like to share with respect to host country preparations?
>> Yes. Not that much about the host country. Just more about the Secretary General. We are still getting confirmation about the Secretary General participation. What we do know also, we are also planning on the possibility of (inaudible) from the Secretary General's office to join us as well. So this is the update for now.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: That's excellent. Really excellent. And I mean yeah. I just don't want to make any French announcements. The French make their own French announcements but the Secretary General will be an equivalent from the French Government.
Also in the background here and again more on this later in the week is both my discussions are complete and I have time to run them by David and probably some of the other members of the organizing team but we are looking to attach the Peace Forum and the Gulf Tech Summit, those two events form the core part of the Paris digital week. The French NRI and ISOC France are also looking to capture a number of other activities that are happening in Paris, not necessarily all initiated by the French. Sort of immediately before or after and something they are calling kind of off IGF, and that website and activity will be launched a little bit later this week. And again it is to create kind of a buzz leading up and then provide some additional avenues for people to participate post those events as well. And the key point in all discussions with these other three, everyone, of course, would like more visibility for their effort and like it recognized as appropriate and as possible in those other Forums.
For both the Gulf Tech Summit and the Paris Peace Forum this is their first event and IGF is looking for support and visibility as well. So some of the things that are on the table would be kind of aligning kind of our social media channels. We are also looking at whatever the visibility various events can give to the other activities in their events, mostly in sort of an Opening Ceremony or high level ceremony is everyone is actually exploring sort of whether or not there is a leaflet or a pamphlet that they might want to make available at the other Forums. All of these have just been put on the table. Most of them and certainly after the IGF we need to go back to either Steering Committees or boards or the UN for support in to some of those activities. I think we will be getting some additional updates over the coming week or two.
Let me see if there are any questions. I don't see anybody in the queue. And oops. And in the chat, nothing additional. So we have a very full set of thematic main sessions to work through. If we could move to item 4 which is the thematic main session process and preparations and I think I saw a counter today for the Paris Peace Forum. They said they are 45 days away. Momentarily freaked me. Both the Paris Peace Forum and the Gulf Tech organizers they are very willing to kind of look or take requests for any representatives that participate either in their Steering Committees or their boards. So, for instance, the Paris Peace Forum has quite an impressive set of participants in both their Steering and Executive Committees. Either on their own behalf or if there was a role presented to the Peace Forum. They are happy to facilitate any of those connections. And so we should feel free I think to look at good opportunities to collaborate as I am sure we will be doing with the IGF as well.
So let me go through the thematic main sessions. We can just ask people to kind of self nominate if they want to go through the list of aids here.
I am not flipping back and forth between lists and people in the chat. Could I ask people to just jump in and switch from thematic main session you are giving us an update on and the key things we need to know the status of the facilitators? Certainly hoping they are all there now. The status of any draft proposals and if possible, any kind of draft proposed focus or policy questions. And then equally as important are there any requests from those organizers of the MAG or MAG members as we build out these sessions. So who wants to go first? So introduce yourself and obviously the main session.
>> WISDOM DONKOR: (Off microphone). Yes. I am in the main session on (cutting out). I'm hoping to share the processes of (Off microphone). (Sorry, can't understand him).
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Wisdom?
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Hello. It is very difficult to hear you. And the transcriber is not able to capture it either. I don't know if you can get closer to the microphone or something or perhaps send in a brief update in writing unless there is somebody else from the team
>> WISDOM DONKOR: I don't know if you can hear me now. Is it better now?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: A little bit better but...
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Hello.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Why don't you try and go ahead.
(Talking at the same time).
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Speak slowly so we can hear you.
>> WISDOM DONKOR: (Off microphone). Accessibility. And so far I am hoping by Friday and I will share for comments. Zena has some (Off microphone) to cofacilitate and move additional to the MAG members to work with Zena and (inaudible). What I am looking at also is to look at work (Off microphone) within this queue to see what can we pick out to (inaudible) in terms of in regards to having accessibility (Off microphone).
And also the policies questions, we are looking out for separate things they choose. (Off microphone). And I will share by Friday for comments and further improvements.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. Thank you, Wisdom. And we want to encourage everyone on the main sessions, I think this was desired from the MAG, was that at least half of the session was actually kept for engagement with the participants.
>> Yes.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: And we need to make sure that we all set that up properly. Okay. Thank you, Wisdom. That was digital inclusion accessibility. Who wants to go next? Paul, I see you are in the speaking queue.
>> PAUL ROWNEY: Good evening. I wanted to add that I did submit I did volunteer to cofacilitate with Wisdom and the other members to the distribution list. So I don't know whether Wisdom actually saw that. But I'm happy to support where possible.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: That's excellent. Okay. I'm sure Wisdom and Zena has noted that. Timea, you have the floor.
>> TIMEA SUTO: Apologies, I was on mute on two devices. Can you hear me now?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes, we can hear you.
>> TIMEA SUTO: Hello, everyone. I wanted to say briefly and give an update on the main session on development, innovation economic issues that MAG members and the Dynamic Coalitions are organizing together. (Inaudible) who is a fellow MAG member and cofacilitator of the DC coordination group. And we have the support of Markus Kummer and the other (inaudible) of the Dynamic Coalitions coordination group and (inaudible) from the Secretariat. So we started working together on this a couple of weeks back. And we have at the moment shared on the mailing list for the organization of this session and shared with the Dynamic Coalition a first draft of the session organization structure and description. And the title is yet to come but what we are thinking about is having a discussion that highlights the work of the Dynamic Coalitions as (inaudible) to Sustainable Development Goals and development generally. And to look at questions how ICTs can be used to drive the Sustainable Development Goals and how do these areas relate to Internet Governance. What are the challenges identified and what are the routes to overcome those challenges as well as have a discussion to discuss what are the rights enabling plus the environments, what are the elements of these environments that enable innovation and deployment of ICTs for widely to create inclusion in prosperous societies. That's the main idea for the session.
We are trying to find the best way to accommodate all the 17 Dynamic Coalitions and their priorities and to give everyone a possibility to share their work. There is a possibility that the DCs will discuss, they will have a call this Friday, most recently and discuss how can they brief the community speakers and all interested in the work as it relates to the CGs. The matrix has already been discovered discussed and prepared. How the DC works, related SDGs and probably they will see if they can develop one page or they are short information on their work. And we are looking at accommodating those short introductions in the session. And based on that have an expert dialogue with the audience. And hopefully draw some main messages from the session on the questions that I mentioned earlier. This is where we stand at the moment. And we are looking forward still for anybody's contributions on the Google doc that details our session. I will share the link. Everyone is still welcome to share your ideas. And we will go from there. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you. Any questions or comments from any of the MAG members? I should have asked the same thing after Wisdom's intervention as well. And with the speaking queue and sort of assuming from the names that are there the speaking queue is for the thematic session updates. That's people who want to come in on these and please just jump in. So let me just answer one of the questions that I saw in the chat room. Obviously the two main or thematic sessions that are jointly organized with the DCs and the NRIs, the list is certainly open to others in the MAG members. Probably the other main sessions can you maybe I could ask the Secretariat as to whether it would be restricted to MAG members or whether MAG members only on the list. Eleonora, Luis or Anja?
>> ELEONORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi. Luis can correct me if I'm wrong but the lists are not restricted to MAG members as we set them up.
>> LUIS BOBO: That's correct.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Maybe we can bring it up on AOB, the general expectation because it has traditionally been MAG's responsibility to organize these thematic main sessions that MAG members that are actively participating in the organization of them, but I don't know restriction on kind of smaller draft listing, if you will. So let's move to the next one. I think, Ben, you have the floor.
>> BEN WALLIS: Thank you. Yes, I'm one of the cofacilitators for private security, trust and privacy along with Stella. And I I sent a written update yesterday and I'll just summarize some of the things that I mentioned in that e mail. I won't get through the whole thing. First, a little bit of an mea culpa as I don't think I am as far along in developing a proposal. And I am going to work with Stella to rectify that. I did send out an initial idea to the list which was that cybersecurity are complex issues in their own right. The challenge is going to try and find a way to look at them all in a single coherent session. And I think that we have to do that given we are down from 180 to 80 minutes.
My kind of starting point, a suggestion that we get all three issues from an economic perspective. For example, that the economic damage that can come from private security attacks, that's a way of looking at the cybersecurity from a private perspective rather than a technical perspective. I think we find a way to frame the discussion from the perspective of an economics and prosperity and privacy and trust is important for sustainable economic development. That's a starting point.
There haven't been any comments on the list in response, but I'm going to work on flushing that out a bit more in the first draft discussion document setting up policy questions and following the other guidance and kind of templates that come from the main session guidelines that you, Lynn, circulated a couple of times in August.
The last thing I would say is that there is I think certainly room for more people to join the discussion as we get it kicked off next week about exactly how to shape this session and who to have speaking on it. And so I will I will share the list again on the chat for anyone else to sign up. And importantly I just want to know that there is also I think probably room for another cofacilitator because I'm one of those people who unfortunately will be at the Plenipotentiary and can't be in Paris. My ability to cofacilitate as we approach the session itself in November will be much more limited. I don't want it to all fall on Silas' shoulders. There are numbers but that's where a proactive call for another volunteer to help share the lead. Thank you, Lynn.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Ben, for the update. I appreciate that and all the work that you are doing in several of the other Working Groups as well. Any comments or questions for Ben? And if you would like to volunteer to be another cofacilitator, that offer should go to the organizing group list, not the MAG.
Not seeing any other requests. Shall we go to Sumon. You have the floor.
>> Sumon: Can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes, we can hear you well.
>> Sumon: Thank you very much. I'm me and Silvia will cofacilitate for the operational issues. And we have some other MAG members to support an early discussion on what would be the topics and what topics we should be working on. In order to speak, doesn't have much development because both me and Silvia are traveling for different conferences. And I get hopefully Silvia will be available from the next couple of days and should come up with a good update in the next MAG meeting. I don't want to say anything concrete at this moment. But this meeting will have a discussion in to our group and also would share in the next MAG meeting. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you. Any questions for Sumon on the technical and operational topics main session? I am not seeing any. Then we'll go to June. June, you have the floor.
I think that while June is unmuting I saw a note from
>> JUNE PARRIS: Sorry, I forgot to put my mic on. Hello. We we are cofacilitating with Miguel the IGF main sessions. Renata has drawn up a proposal, the main session, bringing together different stakeholders' perspective on how Internet Governance intersects with pressing issues. We have started a doodle pool for our first meeting. It is not yet complete. We are still giving people, other members of the MAG the opportunity to join up. We sent a drop proposal and also discussed some themes that we want to look at right now. One of them is on domestic abuse, youth (inaudible) and online protection. So that's as far as we have got for the moment. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, June. Any additional comments for Renata or any questions for June or Renata? Jutta, I am not sure if you are coming in on this subject or one of the other thematic or main sessions.
>> JUTTA CROII: I wanted to come in on this topic. Thank you for giving me the floor. Can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes, we can hear you well.
>> JUTTA CROII: I am interested in being a cofacilitator for that session as well. Unfortunately it is overlapping with one of the important sessions in the Human Rights theme as well on the schedule. So it must be very difficult to address the issues that June has already mentioned, violence against children, domestic violence, when we have the other sessions in parallel at the same time slot. So that's I don't know whether there is any option. I know it is a very tight schedule to change that but it might make it difficult for people to join in who come from that thematic area. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you. Something that the Secretariat can look at. Renata, I saw Renata's agreement. Any further comments on that? I think that as Renata said earlier, to the extent that we can get these updates in writing and really share, you know, the title of proposed focus and policy questions what will allow the other MAG members to contribute as well and ensure meeting full expectations. We want to encourage all of the thematic main session organizers to periodically get something out to the MAG. And it would be nice if there was a substantive update ahead of our next call in two weeks, preferably a few days ahead of the call that people have time to read them and make comment. And we can make maximum progress and get the maximum benefit out of this voice to voice call. We will put a reminder on the list for that. There is still three more thematic or main sessions we haven't heard from. The three are emerging technologies, the evolution of Internet Governance and maybe Anja is going to cover that and main media and content. Is there somebody to speak to any of those three?
>> ANJA GENGO: This is Anja. If there is nobody else then I can briefly update on evolution of Internet Governance.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Please.
>> ANJA GENGO: I will try to provide new updates compared to the last updates that I provided in the latest MAG meeting. We know this session that is still under the working site evolution of Internet Governance focus on the multi stakeholder approach scheduled to be on the second day of the meeting from 11:40 to 1 o'clock. So it is 80 minutes long session. We make we made some refinements to the proposed question. So the final set of questions across which the session will be structured structured by the following, so the first one will be an example from the NRIs and how the application of the multi stakeholder model, discussing the Internet Governance, pertaining to methods contributed to the development of Internet Governance and whether there is an impact on policy.
The second one will be what are the challenges we face while engineering/developing and implementing the multi stakeholder model while discussing Internet Governance methods. The third policy guiding question, how can we improve the implementation of the multi stakeholder model. And the fourth will be the multi stakeholder model on a global level, what is the current status and what are the recommendations for improvement. And this last question will also include the functioning of the multi stakeholder model on the UN level and in that sense the future of the IGF.
Tomorrow at 2 p.m. UTC there is a scheduled retro meeting of NRIs and for all the NRIs and interested MAG members in this session where we will continue brainstorming on the format of this discussion. We agreed this session will probably follow the town hall approach which means that the session will be divided in to three major segments where the NRI representatives will be sharing their inputs within one or two minutes brief statements in advance on the policy questions that I just read. Probably, most probably tomorrow will be concerned with the session will be open with a very brief overview of the nature of the NRIs and impacts that they make globally by the IGF Secretariat. And hopefully tomorrow on the call we will also decide on who could be the potential Moderator, co Moderator of this session and also the Rapporteur.
And finally the idea will be that the session will be closed with a set of concrete messages that will be read out by the Rapporteurs and sent to the wider community. As for the cofacilitators that you asked at the beginning I think this session is, of course, very complex because it involves 106 NRIs that are actively involved in the planning but very fortunate that among the MAG members there are many of the NRI coordinators or community members that are contributing to this discussion. So in that sense we have (Off microphone). And also I have to say that through the dedicated mailing list to this session June and Raquel and Miguel specifically noted that they will support the preparation of this session. So everyone are more than welcome to join, especially tomorrow's call. And we hope that we will all together guide this session and hopefully finalize the proposal that will be shared with the MAG following tomorrow's call.
Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you. Any questions for Anja, comments? It comes as no surprise that I like this theme and the policy questions are being posed. I think it would be a great session. Natasa, you have the floor. I am not sure if it is on this particular topic or on one of the remaining thematic sessions. Natasa, you have the floor.
>> NATASA GLAVOR: Thank you. This is not concerning the (Off microphone).
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: I think you are going to have to speak up a little bit to make sure we can hear you.
>> NATASA GLAVOR: Can you hear me now?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: That's a bit better.
>> NATASA GLAVOR: I would like to say something on behalf of the emerging technologies main session. (Off microphone). Some questions (Off microphone). So we just exchange e mails (Off microphone).
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Please do keep speaking up. I can hear you fine but others are having difficulties. Make sure you are speaking up.
>> NATASA GLAVOR: Okay. I'm sorry. I will try to speak up. So we exchanged e mails since we didn't get too far with our preparation of the emerging technology main session. (Off microphone). Think of the key topics of emerging technologies and block chain and the shape I go in to some details because this is something that is within the main session, that we have to have some kind of consensus on deciding these issues. So (Off microphone). So we are going in that direction. Hopefully in the next MAG meeting we will have something more.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Great. Thank you. Are there any comments or questions? I'm not seeing any. Is there someone who can speak to the median content thematic session? And if that answer is no maybe I will ask Eleonora if she has any update in terms of facilitators and progress organization wise. Eleonora
>> ELEONORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi Lynn. Sorry, I was just seeing if anyone wanted to jump in. So what the Secretariat has recorded based on just our observing of that list was that Sala had volunteered to facilitate on that thematic main session. And it looks like there is still an outline to be developed or shared on that list that I don't think Sala is on the call. But that's what we have recorded.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you. Let me see if there is anybody else that has anything to add to that that may have participated on the list.
You are right, Sala was on the call but I don't see her here any longer. Let's follow up offline and make sure there is enough movement with that main session as well. So again we said it a couple of times as well, we are getting within sort of a 45, 50 day window. We need to make some progress. If the I think that groups could put a push on this and get some substantive updates out to the MAG, ahead of our next MAG meeting, I am hoping that allows us to pretty much close on the draft proposals and the titles and then people can just kind of finalize some of the speaker selection.
And again I will remind everyone that there are a number of other events taking place here in Paris as well which could pull in some speakers that are very senior and also not the usual speakers, which I think would be good. And we will get a separate note out to the MAG and to all the Working Group on this as well so we can keep moving it forward. Thank you everyone for the work to date. I think a lot of these are very interesting. And I am sure will be even better as we move forward to completion. The next item on the agenda was an NRI update. I moved the quarter around a little bit. Anja, if you are okay, if you could give us an update on any of the key NRI activities.
>> ANJA GENGO: Thank you. About the NRI updates, I did update last time on the final topics for the collaboration sessions that were adopted. Let me not be repetitive in that sense and I will just say that we are in the planning process. We are trying to set up five virtual meetings during the next week for all the organizers to come up with a concrete set of written proposals that will be shared with the community. The goal is to have these written proposals as soon as possible in October. Hopefully in the first half of the month. So as soon as they are sent by the co organizer to the Secretariat, the Secretariat will communicate this information to the MAG and have the proposal published on the website.
When it comes about in general the NRI meetings tomorrow with the Columbia IGF it overlaps with the NRI's joint meeting, but we will try to manage our time to attend online. The meeting as I said in the beginning allows for online participation. The MAG members are interested I am pretty sure that the coordinator will share all the information and, of course, the Secretariat will share the relevant information on that meeting through the NRI mailing list. For the relevance of the upcoming annual IGF meeting we have to say that the national IGF is very active and actively involved also in the host country preparations. So it seems that the dedicated Hack A Thon will be organized by the national IGF during the 13th IGF meeting. We are communicating with the coordinator for the French IGF. So as soon as we have the final set of information then we will also share with the NRIs and, of course, in that sense with the MAG.
We are also planning the coordination session and we will very soon start calling the inputs to finalize the agenda. That coordination session will be on the last day of the meeting. It will be an hour and a half long. And it will be open to everyone. So we hope that we will have many more members joining the session that in general will discuss the long term goals in terms of the relationship between the NRIs and the IGF.
And finally, as for the (inaudible) we now know the logistics of the IGF village. We are updating the info page that we have on the general information about the NRIs and hopefully we will be able as a network to try and fast forward and going to support printing out copies of these materials to be distributed to the community to the NRI joined force. That would be a quick round of updates from my side. If you have any questions?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: I have one quick question. The Colombian IGF is Friday, right?
>> ANJA GENGO: 27th if I'm not wrong.
>> JULIAN CASABUENAS: Yes, it is. Tomorrow we will start with business this is Julian speaking. Tomorrow we will start with a course of Internet Governance and the Colombian IGF will be on Friday.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay.
>> ANJA GENGO: That's the event. I thought it was a two day meeting. Thank you for the answer, clarifying.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you both. Thank you, Anja. Are there any questions for Anja and various NRI activities? Okay. Seeing none, let's go to the Intersessional updates. We have, of course, the four BPFs, DC and CENB update. Anybody who wants to jump in on
>> Shall I jump in on private security?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Please.
>> BEN WALLIS: Again there is a written update on BPF on private security which I sent around yesterday. So I'll try not to cover all of that. But so just to say that we have at this point we've had a call for inputs, both the general call for inputs and one to NRIs. And the deadline is now closed for inputs. And so we are beginning to draft the output document so that we can present it ahead of the IGF in Paris. We wanted to be able to put something out a good three or four weeks before Paris because we were aware that some stakeholders, particularly Government officials need to be able to consult internally before they can take and they wouldn't allow enough time for that kind of deliberation as well as kind of putting out through the normal mailing lists. We use social media channels and martin Van Hornbeck who is leading the drafting of the report also did a blog on the and put a statement on global commission stability of cyberspace meeting in Singapore. We have had I think 14 responses so far. And they are all posted at the bottom of the page on the IGF website. And it is still possible to submit contributions. We will do our best to take account of the contributions before we publish a draft output report.
And yeah, we will have a couple of telephone conferences in October and November to discuss the output report and to start planning for the Paris session of the Forum. So those dates will go out to our BPF list soon. Yeah, I think that's about it for now. Obviously this is all predicated on receiving views in Paris at the meeting and taking them in to account in to finalize the output document and having it ready for publication I think by the end of January as per the agreed MAG processes and timelines.
I will try and answer any questions. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Ben. Any questions for Ben or seeing none then, Renata, you have the floor, BPF on gender and access.
>> RENATA AQUINO RIBEIRO: Thanks. This is Renata. Can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Can hear you well.
>> RENATA AQUINO RIBEIRO: Great. So I sent over the MAG list a summary of our last meeting where we had our call for inputs publicized and still open until September 30th. It is a Google doc survey, aligned survey URL and you can also share widely doing inputs in another Forum. We have we received 13 responses so far and two participants have written an Article and we have a Forum. But what I wanted mostly to invite you to the next calls we have, 5 October we have Internet access for gender nonbinary individuals. Meaningful access, how that impacts members in our community. And we already have lined up some ideal speakers. And we will have so called community network and another in white space. And we have a Forum you can call or message. Call leaving an audio message or data phone only. And it is the first time we are doing an experience like that. This is on the BPF page, this number and you contact you can send via web telegram or signal inputs. So far we have received a few messages and people are not obligated to identify themselves. They can also use pseudonyms. We hope you can also share in your Intersessional activities so we get input from your Intersessional activity. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Renata, I agree, I think that's a great idea. Always working to keep it fresh. Thank you. Any comments or questions for Renata? Not seeing any. Is there someone who can speak to the local content BPF or if Timea is on the call AI and Big Data?
>> Can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: We can hear you well. Yes. Thank you.
>> Okay. So I am just here on the DDS. We actually share comments on some update we have done on the draft (inaudible). We have draft document clarification on checks and that we expect on the (inaudible). And then we also for speakers of the workshop and open Forum on (Off microphone). We have workshop that are being and then I have sent today (inaudible) contribution. And then we also launched a call for a website that we land on October 15. So this is the update. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you. Any comments or questions for Prita on that BPF? Do we have anybody to speak to the BPF on local content?
>> Hi Lynn. It is Vin here. I can give a brief update.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. You are a little bit faint.
>> Okay. I will try to speak up. We have had one call since the previous meeting. I think the most important is that since the BPF also started collecting case studies of projects, relatively broad going from specific projects up until specific examples of legislation and regulation, our Government initiatives to help to get to local content value chain. I think that's one that's most important. I would like to add probably most MAG members have seen that we have put combined and put an overview of the different Intersessional activities, the different calls for contributions from the different Intersessional activities. So the BPF and CENB together. And put that IGF main well main Web page. Links to the specific call for contributions. I would like to keep it there. But happy to answer any questions.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. Thank you. And maybe I can just ask Tina, the transcriptionist it was Vin who was speaking, not Ben Wallis. Any comments for Vin? Questions? Seeing none is there someone who can speak to the updates of Dynamic Coalition activities?
>> JUTTA CROII: It is Jutta speaking again. As the cofacilitator for the Dynamic Coalitions, we have a call on Friday at 4 o'clock. It is 2 o'clock UTC just to remind people to be around there. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Jutta. Any comments or questions for Jutta on the Dynamic Coalition? Then CENB. Someone who can give us an update on the CENB? Is Raquel on the call or I don't see Raquel on the call. Is there anyone else that can give us an update or shall we can get one offline. It is not we will go out and request an offline update on CENB and get that out to the MAG. And this brings us to the next agenda item which is MAG Working Group updates. There are five Working Groups. Anybody who wants to go first here? I can jump in with two if give the others a few minutes to think it through. Working Group fundraising had a meeting earlier this week and we have I think two more left before the IGF. We are focusing on a number of areas. One is, of course, certainly the goal is to actually bring in more donors and bring in funding and various activities in the background with respect to current donors and past donors. And some issues with respect to newer or first donors. There is actually a lot of kind of process and organizational work that's going on in the background. Everything, you know, for instance, such as working on in kind recognitions to recognition for those products and services that we do get in kind. We are working on sort of improving the donor/fundraising sponsorship section of the website. We are also working on a very extensive set of frequently asked questions, specifically which relate to the IGF in the context of donations and fundraising. And with very big thanks to DESA for all their support in this activity but specifically with the frequently asked questions as well. They are pulling that together from those speaking documents that they have are extremely helpful. We are also working on a high level letter. The initial thought was this is something that we could actually distribute to the high level members of the Paris Peace Forum. That request is in front of the managing director of the Paris Peace Forum. He has to take that back to his board. They themselves are not clear as to whether or not they are going to sort of submit any materials to the participants themselves.
If they do, my feeling is they would allow us to insert something as well. But that's an open an item with them. We are also working on some sort of templated letters, if you will. So that as people go out and approach donors they actually got sort of a structured letter as basics, but also willing to put in one or two specific paragraphs drawing to any of those organizations' interests.
So, for instance, somebody was very interested in cybersecurity with a closed feature that works. In the background through all of this we are really I think working to understand what are the kind of underlying material needs, what can we do on a website to draw people in a little bit more. And there is also a process to I think more specifically look at the roles and responsibilities which was triggered with a review of the charter that was originally written for the Working Group. That's moving along as well. As a form of reference it is moving a little bit slower than some of the other efforts but I think all the other efforts are giving us a lot of practical experience and hands on experience. So by definition sort of proving out or distributing those activities. And again I really just want to call out and thank you DESA for their support. They have been active in these calls and they are doing a lot to help support that.
Let me know if there are any other members of the Working Group who want to comment, specifically WaiMin and Deniz and then I will come back to Renata because she has her hand up on this question. Anything you would like to add, WaiMin or Deniz? Then Renata, why don't you come in with your comment and
>> I'm trying to there is nothing that we are having.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thanks. It can be hard to find the mute button.
>> No.
>> Yeah, we have nothing to add.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. Thank you. Renata, you have the floor.
>> RENATA AQUINO RIBEIRO: Thank you. So the way the process works, Working Group fundraising, congratulations to everybody who contributed. I am not a member. I am following the discussions but not really involved. I do however have a suggestion. I know that social media uses not not put too much focus on the IGF but perhaps proper interviews or even the IGF village like using the IGF booths for with some speakers from the Paris Peace Forum. I think that would be a good way of integrating more the event and having more speakers participate in the IGF. And that also bring the potential sponsors, donors who could either collaborate with one of the booths or with the IGF, the whole of the IGF. So a little suggestion from my end. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Excellent suggestions. And I think we could possibly look at a specific effort to do as you say. And it sounds like the Paris Peace Forum and IGF as well that we can pull in both the website as well as any other social media campaigns. And equally hopeful that assumptions the Secretary General is coming and does address both the Paris Peace Forum and the IGF that certainly the Paris Peace Forum that we can get a good shout out to the IGF and their activities and then, of course, at the IGF again get some good quotes, some good material as well. So I know colleagues are working with the office to try and see what's possible and what we can get in. And that's a nice natural source for some of the materials that you are talking about as well.
If there is some other things we could do, I wonder if we could even use, if I don't know. I'm brain dead. The Elon students that are coming. I wonder if we could even potentially ask them for some of their questions that they poll this as well so we can get some specific kind of sound bytes or campaign messages for lack of a better word. That would be nice to get a lot of material without having to mount another effort with our thin and overstretched resources like it is.
But let's keep thinking about them. It was a great suggestion. I can talk to I should also mention before I forget, I am the lone chair of that until last week. Richard very kindly volunteered to be the co Chair. She is coming on board and she has been a long standing member. And I appreciate her taking on the role. We have done a lot of work. And we are putting a lot of stretch on the organizations. The real test is actually building up financial resources and additional donations. So hopefully we'll get some better news on that in that sense over the coming weeks.
The if I move now to the Working Group on multi year strategic work program, we have a couple of efforts there. I think Timea is still on the call. So I'll let her talk to the IGF program framework. Again she has given us an update on our call two weeks ago. And it builds on the framework program component document that was done by the Secretariat last year but takes a very useful several sets of steps further. Timea.
>> TIMEA SUTO: Thank you, Lynn. Yes, as we discussed also on our previous calls and as I think discussed on the call of the Working Group this week, the framework presented at the last MAG meeting, minor updates is ready, we also developed, Susan and myself we worked on developing the questionnaire on about the framework and the chart that we worked on in (inaudible). And we are hoping to be able to share this with the MAG and with the broader community as soon as possible both the chart and the questionnaire to pull some of the community's views on whether the chart actually reflects accurately the process of how the IGF or life cycle looks like throughout the year. What are the main steps that the community is taking with both the MAG and IGF Secretariat in organizing. And then also what are the steps where the community can come in and populate that framework with ideas, themes and can contribute to the IGF.
So that's the one point of our questionnaire. And then the second point of the questionnaire is to see if the community has anything to add or would like to see anything improved or have any questions or suggestions to flag for the MAG. And we are hoping that we can share both the presentation and the questionnaire as soon as possible with you all. And once we do that, they are looking and giving at least four weeks for the community to look at this and share their opinions and send that on. Hopefully we can compile that and have a discussion around findings in Paris at the IGF.
So this is what we are looking at and I'm currently the document is with the Secretariat for final polishing and we are hoping to be able to share it with you very soon.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Timea, and with regards to the last comment the discussion, the last Working Group, yeah, the Secretariat has indicated that they will be able to get you their comments for final review tomorrow Thursday.
>> TIMEA SUTO: Perfect.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: They do good work. Any so there are a couple of other updates with the this particular Working Group as well. We have been trying to move to (inaudible) forward both to the same sort of purpose and that is basically to identify a small number of topics that we could actually work in a very cooperative manner, collaborative manner with the broader community and really put those activities move to some more concrete outputs. And that was led by two individuals; one MAG member and one not a MAG member. We are working on a final consolidated proposal which should it is with the Working Group with the Working Group for final review. And the idea is that we would send it to the MAG for input and I guess support, if that's possible, recognizing that we are at the end of one MAG cycle. So support would basically be sort of recommendations or transitional status or something like that to the incoming MAG. But again that basically just focused on taking a kind of thorny issue and trying to put a thoughtful steps process in, looking for greater cooperation and more concrete outputs. And we have shared with the MAG substantive updates on what those two pilots were in the past. We are now looking to combine the two of them in to one effort.
And two other quick updates on the same Working Group. There is also another multi year strategic process drafting team which is led by co Chair Sheba and with a couple of MAG and nonMAG members. Really trying to put together a very specific process and timetable for engaging the MAG and the community in the identification of a very small number of multi year strategic projects and high level work plan for them.
So that's continuing again. We had a meeting earlier this week as well and the commitment was to currently a Google doc open for comment to take one more round and give it back to the Working Group for their review and then obviously out to the MAG and the community. It is building on a lot of the processes that we already have in place. We have the call for inputs. We obviously have the call for submissions which is a good indication of where the community's interest is. We have all the Intersessional activities. And then we have the NRIs as well and both their indicative activities through the collaborative sessions as well as all of their own IGF initiatives in country or region.
So we are trying to pull that together and make sure we have a broad process, that one that's kind of just heavy enough in terms of weight and allows us to get moving more quickly. And we had a good discussion on the last call as well about outputs and this followed a discussion I had where a couple of different individuals and DESA as well with respect to all the outputs and Working Group member kind of brought up and then kindly volunteered to lead a small drafting team again which would look at all the different types of outputs, actually collect now through the IGF cycle. So whether it is a report from a workshop session or whether it is a BPF report or it is key messages or it is a different set of activities or in fact, the Chair's report, try and identify what those various pieces are and put together a really kind of concrete process for pulling those outputs together and maximizing them. And that's going to require I think possibly a little more organization across the various activities or entities that contribute to those outputs.
A number of ideas that said, you know, the Chair's summary could probably more usefully be written if it focused on themes. We have the key messages that we were trying to pull out of the themes, that thematic sessions and the workshop sessions as well. We are looking to do some structuring, possibly a little bit of reorganizing on the front end how we can resource some of those efforts. Stay tuned. And as soon as the drafting team is through with the paper we will get it out to the MAG.
Before we go to the other few Working Groups that are there there is a question I see in the chat room. The Working Groups are actually chartered by the MAG. Theoretically at this point in time, I think the idea is that they should find a way to kind of draw a line under the work to date, capture a document and prepare recommendations for the incoming MAG and that that should be a discussion with the incoming MAG with respect to these Working Groups and whether or not they should continue. And we did do this last year. We did this last year on a Working Group on improvements and but there is not I think it would be inappropriate to say that there is an expectation that the Working Groups continue from one MAG to the next because that was not discussed or declared.
So right now I think the we operate under the assumption that each Working Group, they choose appropriate with the future of the work and that the new MAG would take that up and determine what if any go forward.
And Renata, you have an idea for a new MAG that will be at IGF Paris. There was a discussion earlier in the meeting the timetable is too tight. The UN is working to have the new MAG announced ahead of Paris or during the Paris meeting. And I think that's just too tight a time frame to get the MAG members there.
But I also think it is important that we have a meeting or a new MAG has a meeting early in the next year to take advantage of these kind of months looking back and should also allow us to I think have some more thoughtful and more Strategic Planning while rather than kind of all hands to annual meeting planning.
Any questions or on Working Group for multi year work program or are there any Working Group members that want to add anything to that summary? Any I am not seeing any. Volunteers to give updates on the remaining Working Groups? Workshop evaluation or communications and outreach? Or improvements?
>> JULIAN CASABUENAS: I can briefly this is Julian. I can talk about the work group improvements.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Great. Thank you.
>> JULIAN CASABUENAS: Well, at this time we have discussed inside the group reviewing the whole set of recommendations that we are working with to compliment them. This is that each of the volunteers is able to look in to the exercise by the rest of the group. And what we want to do is to plan a couple of communities to agree with the final document with recommendations and with us to have them in the following days. And our goal is to finalize the document during October taking in to account the approved charter which is to highlight the to develop targets, milestones and indicators to make sure that current and future progress towards recommendations that have not been fully implemented. Proposals, future step for MAG and the wider IGF community that might include engagement with national and regional IGFs. Establishing thematic sessions on the various issues at future IGFs. And propose ways to implement a specific recommendation where needed. This is bullet points from our charter. So that's a very brief report.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Julian. Any questions for Julian? Again as I said before I think it is important work because it allows us to take a thoughtful deep look at all the suggestions that have been coming from different corners and individual comments and both judge our progress against them and then propose an action plan for those that are missing. It is also a lot, a lot of work if anybody has looked at the spreadsheet. So really appreciate everything that you are doing, Julian, in the group. Any updates from communications and outreach or workshop prep and evaluation?
>> RASHA ABDULLA: Hello?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes.
>> RASHA ABDULLA: Hi it is Rasha. Can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yeah, we can hear you. Thank you.
>> RASHA ABDULLA: Very briefly. That I will be sending out an e mail to discuss the review process. And I am hoping that we can get everything done early next week. So I will send it out right away. And if people can respond if they can make it that would be much appreciated.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Great. Thank you. Also important work and we made great, great progress in the last couple of years. But it would be nice to just keep just tightening it and moving things forward.
And communications and outreach? Someone from the Working Group who could give us a brief update on that? I don't know if Mamadou is on the call, but I know we have seen some e mails from Mamadou over time with respect to some of the activities and things that are driving. I know they are working hard on the outreach and pretty sure the translation and things as well. Any additional comments or suggestions or queries to the Working Group that we can pass on?
Not seeing any. Let's move to AOB. Final call, any other items that have come up? I will do a full count to six. Can I thank everyone for participating in this call, particularly those for those it is very late or very early? As I said before I just think that it is important that we all share the pain and pleasure of these cycle calls. So really appreciate everyone making the effort. And also all the effort amongst all the activities here to move us forward. We are getting a place. Pretty soon we will be able to see the rewards from all this work. Thank you. I thank the Secretariat and DESA. We appreciate the support. And I guess we'll see everyone on the net as Vint says. Bye bye.