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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>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi, everyone, it's Eleanora from the Secretariat. I hope you can hear me. Thanks for joining. We'll just give Lynn and Tye a few more minutes to join.
>> DANKO JEVTOVIC: Hi, everyone. Can you hear me? I don't hear any sounds.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi, Danko. It's Eleanora from the Secretariat. Sorry that we're getting a late start. I think it's just taking a little while for Lynn and Chengtai to sign op. I think there may have been some confusion with the time change and that's what's causing this.
>> DANKO JEVTOVIC: Okay. Thank you. Nice to hear your voice.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Nice to hear you too. Thanks for bearing with us.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Hmm. Can you hear me?
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi, Chengetai. It's Eleanora. I can hear you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Hi, Eleanora. Yes, there was some confusion about the time. I think it was daylight savings time that caused a little bit of confusion. I do apologize for that. Has Lynn joined is? No?
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: She's not on yet. Unfortunately. I've messaged her just to remind her. We'll see if she comes on soon.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. Okay. Let's just give it a couple more minutes and if not, then we'll just start without her. Okay. I think let's just start with the adoption of the agenda. Now, has anybody got any amendments to the agenda as it stands at this moment in time? I'll just keep that a six count. Okay. I'll assume that there's no no amendment to the agenda and we'll proceed with the agenda as is.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Hang on, Chengetai, I asked for the floor. Many I question is not for the agenda, it's just ordering of the agenda. I don't think MAG working groups and transitioning should come ahead of all the working groups related to the IGF in Paris last week such as NRA updates and intersessional updates so my suggestion is reordering the agenda and order all the issues related to the meeting next week first. Thanks.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. Yeah. I think that makes sense so we can do that. We can we can. Okay. We can deal with the agenda items that deal with next week's meeting first and then do the other agendas, the updates last. Correct? Okay. So the first thing is updates from the Secretariat and the Chair. So, I'm in Paris and the rest of the Secretariat is going to arrive, well, is start arriving from tomorrow onwards and just to, for things that are pertinent to people who are arriving. As you know that we have posted the times at UNESCO when you can pick up your badges and I will just ask Eleanora just to wrap those off. Do you have the time, Sandy?
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi, Chengetai. Hi, everyone. I actually do not know them by heart because they're not the same every day but you can start, there is actually a pretty wide margin of time during which people can start picking up their badges starting Friday, in fact, and to be clear, because there has been a little bit of confusion on this, during the times that registration on site and badge pick up on site is open, the online registration will also be reopened and I think that's maybe a point that's not totally clear for everyone so for some people who maybe are worried about about having to do the actual registration process on site, they can actually fill out the form online from their computers, have it approved, and then get into, and on site, get into the line to wait to just pick up the badge so there is, that's a bit of good news and a bit of a time saver, too.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: But those badges are going to be hand written, not as nice as the other badges so they'll work equally as well.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: So, actually, in the chat, Raquel was very helpful. He posted the times and I've provided the link to where there's more complete information.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you. Sorry about that. I thought I had an hour to prepare and I just got calls I had to just rush to the phone. So Okay. . Then, do we have any other updates?
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Maybe Luis can give us a quick update on the registration numbers?
>> LUIS BOBO: Thanks, Eleanora. Yes, there were more than 3,300 registrations so far and we expect many other registrations on site on Friday, if I am not wrong.
>> Yeah, but we don't expect 3,300 people to come. Those are the registrations but usually between 70 percent actually show up at the venue or 80 percent show up. Those are the usual statistics given to any conference that out of the registered apartments due to missed flights or unable to get funding or something happens between 70 and 80 percent of the people actually show up to get their badges.
For their IGF villages, you'll know that you'll be able to set up on Saturday. There will be tote bags then the set up starts on Saturday at 10:00 AM for those who have set them up. Also for dismantling the boots, you'll have to do it on Wednesday afternoon so you can do it after the meeting closes. The booths have to be dismantled on Wednesday afternoon. Do we have any other updates? Eleanora? Anya?
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Sorry, Chengetai. It's Eleanora. I would just as a general notice because I think maybe some MAG members or colleagues have been looking for bilateral meeting space, I would just say in the regular self reservation calendar that we have shared for people to reserve their own space, that calendar is very nearly entirely full because of the very limited number of rooms that the venue has given us. If bilateral meeting space is urgently needed, please email me and we can find time during a limited set of hours either early in the morning or later in the evening after sessions and some hours during lunch when the regular workshop or conference rooms can be used. But, that would be exception exceptional and that space is also filling up quite fast. So, this is just to let those of you who were looking for that b kind of space know that this is the situation for the bilateral meeting rooms.
>> BEN WALLIS: Thank you very much, Chengetai. It was relating to hours that people could enter the venue. I sent an email out earlier today so when you were talking about the hours that the badges could be collected that included pretty much all day on Monday from 7:30 in the morning to 9:00 PM, I think were the hours I had. But I think recently I had the impression maybe from David Martineau that it might not be possible to b enter or leave the premises while the VIPs are present so I just wanted to confirm if that was case or whether, as you say, people will be able to come and go at any time between 7:30 at 9:00 PM on Monday. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. We as the Secretariat have not been informed about any embargo on people coming in and out when the VIPs are there but there has been some heightened security, especially during the last week but we'll reconfirm with the host country. Is anybody from the host country on this call. I can't see anybody else. But, we'll reconfirm. Tell you whether or not there's going to be any blocking of people coming in and out when the high level participants are there.
>> BEN WALLIS: Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: I see Lynn is there. Lynn, can you hear us? No, she's still coming on. Okay. So, is there anybody from the host country on this call? Because they can actually give us an update on the high level meeting panels. But, they did say that this afternoon, they did fill out the high level panel meeting, the template on the IGF website so if we do click on it, if somebody can put that link into the chat so people can see it. Again, I'm sorry, my hotel room is very, very limited Wi Fi connection and I can't seem to navigate on my computer. But, I just need a confirmation that the high level panel, at least the first one has been filled out.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi, Chengetai. It's Eleanora. I'm looking for this in the background. I'm having my own slight computer issues from home where things are loading slowly, but when I find the link, I can share it.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. Thank you. And then we go to the next agenda item which is the opening ceremony and high level panels. Okay. So we're searching for the link. As far as we know, it's that the Secretariat general is going to be there. I think he's going to come at 3:40. Also, the French president is going to be there as well, and is going to make a major speech. I think Lynn also informed MAG about that. Raquel? Do you have a question?
>> RAQUEL GATTO: Hi, Chengetai. Can you hear me?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, we can.
>> RAQUEL GATTO: Okay. Great. Thank you very much. It was good to hear Ben earlier. We are all in the same time zone so it's past midnight. Sorry. I'm trying to articulate here but I had a previous hand on actually the previous agenda item regarding the updates. Two questions. One is, and perhaps it's also for the host country, but I remember from last MAG call that there would be two different entrances and I would like to know if the MAG members are going for the main entrance, are we going through the, for the other? I didn't quite get, but it's important to know as we are arriving and to know where we should be going.
And in the second item is referring to any of the MAG commitments. I also recall we might have a breakfast or a meeting with the Secretary general and we also spoke about having a face to face meeting if possible so if you have any updates on that sense, that would be great. Thank you very much.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. There is a VIP entrance but that entrance is for VIPs, especially on the Monday. So, unfortunately, I don't think we can have the MAG go through that on the Monday. But, we can investigate and see whether or not, I think it would make things much easier if the MAG can use the VIP entrance as well on Tuesday and Wednesday but on the Monday since there will be so many VIPs coming in and out, I don't think that would be possible that they would have to use the regular entrance with people.
And there is plans for a meeting with the undersecretary General and unfortunately, one of the thing that's we have to find is a room that is big enough to fit 50 or 60 odd people. Especially with, if we have the announcement of the 2019 MAG as well. So, if you would need a bigger room and as Eleanora has just said that you know, the room situation at UNESCO is rather limited for things that are not associated with the workshops. We are also sorry, I'm getting a lot of feedback if somebody doesn't mind going on mute. We are also investigating whether or not the MAG can meet. It's not going to be a very long meeting but maybe just in development and we'll keep you informed of that and the time and this would also happen on the Monday because that's the only Monday afternoon because that's the only time that the Secretary General will be available.
Unfortunately, with these VI Ps at Secretary General's level, the timing always changes because he's not just attending the IGF.
>> Sorry, Chengetai, I don't know if you can hear me.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, I can hear you.
>> RAQUEL GATTO: Okay. It takes a while to unmute. I'm sorry. I lost your last part, if your meeting is going to be on Monday with the Secretary General.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes just a brief meeting with the Secretary General. Not anything fancy, not for half an hour or so. It will have to be very brief. Okay. Then let's go to the next agenda item, if there's no questions on that one so, I will be sending out an email if you can just send me suggestions for a representative from each stakeholder group to speak at the closing ceremony, this is what we've traditionally done. Let's see if there's anything else that's dealing with the presentations for next week.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Chengetai, it's Lynn. I'm on now and I can hear. With sincere apologies. For some reason, my calendar had this starting in another hour, half hour, now. So I'm not sure, I guess the change. Is there anything I can clear up, Chengetai?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: No, I don't know if you want to add anything about the high level panels.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: I'm not sure what you said but we had a couple MAG callings that we'd been made aware by a couple countries that there were VIPs hoping to attend the IGF because it's something along time running alongside the Paris Peace Four so they were having a difficult time finding slots for them. They did make an offer to the MAG to fulfill the main sessions so I know that's been taken advantage of by a couple. Main sessions which is excellent but that still left quite a number of VIPs and I think everybody is quite keen to welcome them, in Paris. I think the options are really very limited. We're trying to find a way to both facilitate their participation, meet their expectations but of course there wasn't enough time to put together another high level panel. We may have tied them together around a couple of common themes. Trying to find an appropriate slot. Obviously, there are all sorts of considerations with respect to interpretations and rooms. Chengetai might have shared as well as some given Secretary General, in terms of security considerations and that sort of thing. As soon as anything begins to look firm, it's not firm, but begins to look firm, it's kind of a work in progress.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you, Lynn. Yes. I hadn't said.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: I think the other, and again, sincere apologies. We had thought the host country would be on this call as well but as I said, I think they're dealing with kind of late breaking situations. The, they had also said that they are hoping to launch a call recognizing some of the pressure on various actors are with respect to cybersecurity. They wanted to kind of launch that and make some announcement via president Makral at the IGF which hi think is excellent news. I think some of the earlier plans might have been looking more towards the Paris peace four but of course all of this is under embargo so it's not actually formally known yet. But, again, everybody is trying to minimize the surprises to the MAG.
I don't think, there's nothing that am I corrects the IGF. This has been implicates the IGF. This is undertaken by they simply wanted to announce at the IGF. I think at the end they would say that they look forward to kind of continuing the efforts or looking forward to progress made at next year's IGF so again, I think important thing there is that it recognizes and calls out the IGF as a venue for some of these really it. again, trying to switch up what president
>> WIM DEGEZELLE:S to do at the event in Paris next week. So, I think that's sort of all I had that were critical announcements, Chengetai.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, okay. Thank you very much. I think we can now go to agenda item 4. No, as suggested, let's do, yes, yes. Agenda item 4. Yes. A brief overview of them attic main sessions
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Is there anyone who wants to go first or should we just start working through the order in the schedule? Chengetai and Eleanora, again, we're just looking for a quick update, obviously, there should be particular attention paid if there's anything that the organizers of these them attic main sessions need help with or additional support for such as title descriptions or speakers, we really need that now, frankly. Maybe Chengetai or Eleanora can ask you to call out specifics.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Okay. We can start with either emerging technologies or those are the two main sessions on the first day. I see we have Sala on who maybe could speak for media and content.
>> Hi, can you hear me?
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Yes, hi, Sala.
>> Good morning, everybody. Sala here calling in from Fiji. Just quick update about the median content session. We've been looping the Secretariat in. We have been looping in, we only have 1r1 remote participant who is unable to come because she's an expert witness in a deaf penalty case but she'll be giving the contribution remotely. Having said that, everything is in order, Adama has done a fantastic job with preparing all the remote, facilitate the session and we've got a really good diverse speaker line up from the east and west and north and south developed and developing, although does complain that there seem to be too many women but that's not a bad thing?
>> No.
>> So, that's it from us. Thanks.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, Sala. Shall we go to the next one? Any volunteers?
>> Sure, happy to do the cybersecurity one, too, if you'd like.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. Sure. Please go ahead.
>> So, we've confirmed our list of speakers, we're just making one adjustment to the list of governors who is unable to be here but Leisyl has been kind enough to send us a replacement speaker so we'll just make that adjustment and we'll be finalizing the poster and the social media handles.
>> Thank you very much ala. Next volunteer for the main session update?
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Hello? Can I?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, please go ahead.
>> WISDOM DONKOR: My name is wisdom. I'm actually (inaudible).
(speaker volume too low for audio)
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much. We'll ask the French governor if they have any suggestions for a Chair. And the next session, please.
>> Can you hear me? We've been meeting on Skype. Our last meeting was Monday and we discussed the following topics of speakers, protocol, agree on speakers and agree on sending invitation to the speakers. We were planning to meet up in Paris. Unfortunately, I actually got an email to book a room but I missed the deadline which is yesterday. Also, IGF, 2018 some of the speakers were able to join the call and gave us updates on their profiles and other points so discuss remote participation. Adama is has been really good, again, preparing a leaflet and also finalizing the speaker profiles. We, myself and Adama will do will be, will be Rapporteurs on the day. Since most of us will arrive in Paris, as I said, we were hoping to meet on the same day at four or five, I think we may have to change that time and venue. Our report was also discussed and this was published, I think that was published, Ranata, I think she published it. We are still looking at sharing or interacting with MAG for support and speakers to have a good balance. We also want to include a representative from the Secretariat, Chengetai if possible, or Eleanora. I know that you're very busy but hopefully we can enlist your help. Our online WebEx page will be translated into six languages. We are encouraging. We also exchange group chats on Skype, which works really well. Skype is helpful. At this point, we're discussing including the youth groups but we need to agree on eye youth speaker. That's what we're working on at the moment. Renata, have you got anything to add? Hello?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Sometimes it takes a bit long to unmute. But you said you were missing some panelists. Is there anything with the panelists?
>> We are still working on panelists. Renata is probably the one to talk about that. She's in touch with a lot of the people who would like to participate. I know that we've got people to speak, but I'm not sure if we've got a good mix of people at the moment.
>> June, could you and Renata send a note to the MAG identifying either the sort of expertise or whatever other diversity characteristics, region, gender, you're looking for so that we can work this. I mean, we're only days away from this so I'm sure you're all feeling the pressure as well but give us whatever we need so that we can help you.
>> Oh, yes. And we are all traveling on Friday so we've got one day or two days, one day left.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: It doesn't need to be wrong, we just need people with this profile, preferably from this region, gender if appropriate. We'll all work as quickly as we can.
>> I think Adama may be trying to speak but it looks like she's not connected to the audio. Are you there, Adama? Oh, she's connected. Is there anything you want to say to add to what I said?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: She says they're all good in the chat room, and Raquel has actually said that she has a list from youth DC that they've circulated with youth confirmed participants, so perhaps that can help as well. And thank you, Raquel. If you could share that, at least with, I guess June, Renata and Adama, that would be great.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: I think we also have Timea and then Uta who wants to say something.
>> TIMEA SUTO: Hi, Chengetai. This is Timea. Can you hear me?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, we can.
>> TIMEA SUTO: Thank you. So I just wanted to, and I think are going to tag team on this one to provide you a brief update on the main session on the development information and economic issues taking place on Tuesday, the 13th of November at 3:00 PM in the afternoon of the first session of the afternoon. We are working on this jointly with MAG members and the dynamic coalitions and we've decided that the session will be held in three parts. First it will be setting the scene portion with expert speakers. Then, it will be a portion where I will go return to the dynamic coalitions learn about your work as it relates to the session and then there will be a third sort of a session dedicated to audience participation and collective debate.
At the moment, we have speakers confirmed for all of it. We are still looking possibly to include that international organization. We had speaker identified, but they pulled back last minute, so we're looking to replace that as possible. But, it's a long list of speakers that we have so if we cannot, at last moment, it might not be a huge problem either. You can look at the session description on the website. It's all there and all updated, thanks to Eleanora who is also helping us on the dynamic coalitions coordination side. So far, that's all I would want to say. Uta, is there anything you want to add?
>> Yes. Hello, everybody. Jutta speaking here. I just had add some information on the dynamic coalitions who will take part in the session. Eleven dynamic coalitions so far. Accessible, safety, internet well use, connecting the, all the one, one and a half page paper where they elaborate on the of their work in regard of the SDGs and this will be kind of a like a through the whole debate and we have in addition, it is worth mentioning that we have a team of moderators with Digeo Molan from Columbia and Nadya from the youth coalition on internet governance so I do think the session is very much in line with the multistakeholder approach and diversity of speakers as well as of moderators. I think that's all. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Jutta. And thank you, Tinea as well. We still have three more reports due on them attic main sessions. Is there anybody to speak on, let's see, median content? Okay. Who else. Is Sylvia on the call or Suman I don't see them.
>> Digital inclusion and accessible. Yeah.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: So, I don't see anybody on the call from the emerging technologies. Is there anyone on the call from the other two? If not, let's reach out and send them a note specifically asking them for the status unless in the Secretariat, I mean, are we all set? Are they, their session descriptions, titles, and speakers?
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi, Lynn. It's Eleanora. I just wanted to quickly come in to say that they have fully provided information on their session in the schedule. So, it is viewable. Like, I can share the links in the chat.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: And is that for emerging technologies or for the other three that he haven't yet reviewed?
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: It's for both. It's for emerging technologies and for technical and operational policies and from what I've seen on their mailing list, they are prepared.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. Have we hit all the them attic main sessions then? I'm actually working from my phone and it's just hard to keep working back and forth between all of the documents and websites.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Lynn, I'm sorry, I think we're missing evolution of internet governance, the co organized with NRIs.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. Is that something Anja can give us an update on or is there someone else on the call that could?
>> ANJA GENGO: Hi, Lynn. This is Anja and hi to everyone. I can just
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. Anja, you're quite faint. Thank you for jumping in but you are quite faint.
>> ANJA GENGO: Can you hear me better now?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: No.
>> ANJA GENGO: Okay. Give me a second. Okay. Is this any better now?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes.
>> ANJA GENGO: Okay. Thank you. So, just very, very briefly compared to last update, the session is fully ready. We have 36NRIs that confirmed that they will by represented on site in Paris. The co moderators are confirmed. We're very happy to have the ambassador Benedict moderating along with me in our co moderating supporting role. When it comes about the remote moderators, Nick van Schmidt from the UK IGF and Carolina from the Argentina IGF r IGF will help this session with remote moderators. The rapporteurs will be coming from the IGF USA that will be Dustin Phillips and also from the Nigerian IGF will be sorry, probably I'm not pronouncing it well. And those are the final agreed elements of this proposal that's still available publicly. The prereport within the deadline as requested and of course we will completely comply with the new reporting procedures of the IGF. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Anja. Are there any, we didn't stop to take questions after each one of the updates but are there any questions on any of the updates or any questions on the reporting requirements? And I guess at the same time anything that the Secretariat still needs from the MAG with respect to supporting both the sessions and the reporting requirements?
>> RAQUEL GATTO: Lynn, it is Raquel. And I'm sorry to jump in in the microphone, I'm also having troubles to unmute. I was writing in the chat, if you want, I can provide an update on emerging technologies.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Raquel.
>> RAQUEL GATTO: Yes. No, that's okay. We have confirmed already the co moderators. We have Vladimir Radovinich from Deep Roots foundation and Olga Cavali. They're both going to do the co facilitator roles for the session on emerging technologies. We've also confirmed three speakers. Lorena Pashani from civil society. Martin Batterman also from Civil Society but from the DC on internet of things and they've from the U.S. government. We are pending confirmation from the private sector and from the technical community. We've invited Lyla el assist Asrihi and Satish Nabul but so far we are waiting for those two confirmations. Otherwise, we are going to reach out to the MAG for any further suggestions on who could fill this role. But, so far, it seems to be moving well. It's on track. And certainly, my co facilitators for this session, Gonzalo, Nitasha and Christopher are going to share any updates on the list. Thank you very much.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Raquel. So, again, to the MAG members, are there any questions for any of the reports? And then separately, I want to come back to the Secretariat and see if there's anything you you want to emphasize or any questions or any reminders that we need to discuss vis a vis the reporting requirements and the changes in requirements for outputs. Just doing a slow count to six.
I don't see any further questions for any of the them attic session organizers. Chengetai, Eleanora, I'm assuming there's nothing else you'd like to add or comment on with respect to reporting requirements? Is that fair?
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi, Lynn. I would say that's fair. I think it's just important for us that the main session organizers understand them so of course, this would be the perfect opportunity to ask any questions.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. Thank you. We'll give it just another few seconds. I don't see anybody in the speaking queue. There's a couple comments in the chat room but okay, it looks like we can move on to the next agenda. I see Rasha is on the call. Rasha, do you want to give us an update on the working group workshop prep and evaluation?
>> RASHA ABDULLA: Sure, hi, everybody. Can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: We can.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Sorry for jumping in. I think before you came I think I suggested we deal with all the items for next week's meeting beforehand, including NRI and BPFs and there was no objection to do that so I would suggest sticking to that session so thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. I'm happy to do that. I'll also note that we've been pretty good at working through the agenda we've established and getting through the items but fine. So then where does that leave us? Rasha, if you don't mind, can I just ask you to wait a few minutes and let's come, I guess next would be the NRI updates, we jump to agenda item 7.
>> ANJA GENGO: Thank you, Lynn. Briefly, I'll just update. The NR Is, additionally for the Secretariat, there are more meetings happening just this month you'll see on the list, there were six meetings, I believe, happening. So quite intensive and have to say, very good meetings.
When it comes about the NRI's integration, the side of the main session that I gave an update just so let you know that the agenda is finalized. I'm glad we have that we will attend. It will be shared tomorrow so of course we will be invited and I hope you will all be able to join it on Tuesday across the lunch break. The collaborative sessions are finalized, what colleagues are trying now to finalize are the, who going to be the rap porteurs. It's a bit difficult to get them given the new responsibilities assigned to rapporteurs. Finally, for the NRIs, on Saturday, some of the NRIs will join me at the UNESCO venue to set up the booth. We had the generous offer from EuroDig that will cover the printing costs of the whole NRIs and we're also very glad that the IGF will be joining the NRI's booth so we'll be able to also have that collaboration.
I think for the sake of saving time, there would be a very brief update from me, but please, if you have any questions, of course I'm here. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Anja. Let's see if there are any questions for Anja. The NRIs? I think the session, the joint coordination session is always very interesting, and of course, it's a great opportunity to meet all the leaders from the NRIs that are there as well. So, if MAG members can attend, I think that would be very good. Seeing no oh, hi, Jacomo.
>> Just to say that they finished the IGF so we are just in the middle of the discussion and there's been a lot of participation and Anja was also attending by remote. There will be I think good contribution coming from Italy.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Excellent. Yeah, there have been a real large number of NRI meetings in the last few weeks so that's excellent and certainly look forward to seeing the reports and obviously hearing about them in the IGF as well. Not seeing any other requests for the floor, why don't we move to agenda item 8. The updates on various intersessional activities. Best practice four forums. Not sure that's Markus or Ben who is prepared to think.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Yes, thanks, Lynn. I'm happy to jump in as Ben is in Dubai and beyond midnight, I think he slipped out of the call and he will not be able to be in Paris, unfortunately. Neither will be Martin with our lead experts so in the end, it will be Ben's colleague. We have documents that summaries all the inputs we have and we have some key speakers from those who provided input, including Alexander Klinborg from the global commission on cyber space and also from a MAG member who now works for article 19, is in Africa.
But, essentially, we conceived the question as a round table discussion to deal with all the broad and very rich input we have on the table. As I said, I think we are on the track and we look forward to our session. Happy to answer any questions you may have.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Markus. Are there any questions for Markus? Are there any speakers on the other BPFs for you to give an update? Are you able to give one? Okay, Raquel, if you can go with CDMB that's fine. We'll move around.
>> RAQUEL GATTO: Thanks, Lynn. Oh, sorry, someone else is
>> Jacomo. If Wim is not there, I can tell something on the BPF but I can do it later.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: It's up to you why don't you go ahead, Jacomo. We'll finish off the BPFs then, Jacomo?
>> we will have tomorrow the last conference call, tomorrow afternoon, so we'll be more precise. But for the most part, we have defined the number of best practices coming from South America and there will be something also on IDNs. First draft of the document has been already published as the lead, November the first. And open for any contribution if anybody else wants to integrate this, it would be more than fine. By tomorrow, we will finalize the list of the speakers.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Can you, thank you, Jacomo. Again, it's important to finalize that, soon. If there's anything anybody can do on the MAG on the Secretariat, just let us know. Is there someone on the call who can speaker to the gender or TD perhaps to the Article initial intelligence, internet of things, big data.
>> CONCINETTA CASSA: Yes, Lynn. This is TT. Can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes. Thank you. Yes. TT, can you speak on the artificial intelligence?
>> CONCINETTA CASSA: Yes. Can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes. We can hear you.
>> CONCINETTA CASSA: Okay. Yes, I can just give a brief update about the BPF. We actually at sum up data on the workout document and then we have published it just today. We send an email to working group and then we actually are having tomorrow, try to agree about the structure of the panel as there are some things that has changed that compared to the last document because there are just a few concepts that have been taken away like the good principle, it was quite, it was a quite long discussion about the need to install for the tool kit. And then, tomorrow, we are going to decide how to structure the new, with these new updates on the document. So, that's it. Thanks.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you. Any questions for TT on the artificial intelligence, internet of things and data? Then I guess it would be Renata or Raquel on the BPF gender. Raquel, Renata is suggesting you might be the most up to date on the BPF on gender.
>> RAQUEL GATTO: Sorry, Lynn. I hope you can hear me. My connection is dropping a little bit but yes, so we have the document out already. I will post in the chat in a moment the link for the draft, for the direct outcome document for the BPF gender. We have the session, end of October, there was the call with the BPF participants. And we have the session outlined and some of the speakers confirmed. I think we are on track. The co moderators are Augustina and Radita was the consultant also. The line up of speakers from Civil Society, from private sector and from government that are already confirmed.
Choose arguments, those are the experts that also have provided inputs during the calls. And I think that's about it. Renata, if you have anything, I didn't participate in the last call, the planning call. So I don't know if there is any updates from this week.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Renata is thanking you in the chat room. Renata, if there's anything you need to add, please do so. I'm assuming not from her last two comments in the chat room, Raquel. While we have you, could you move to the CENB update now?
>> RAQUEL GATTO: Yes. So, same thing to start with. There is also a drive to document out thanks to Radita and Sherada who have been working very hard on this document. Also for the CENB session at IGF next week, it will be on Monday at 9:00 or 9:30, I'm sorry, I don't have this by memory. But, it's its first thing in the morning on Monday and we do have Wisdom, Mary and June who is tapped in and we're missing one person to join us. If you have anyone from the MAG or anyone interested regarding SDG17, just to recap, CENB has to do with looking into the experiences and case studies regarding to advancing SDG7 which is about clean language, the eighth, which is about jobs, future of jobs, if the ninth, which is the internet one and the 17, which is about partnerships. Basically, we have covered the three ones and it would be great to have someone else for the 17th and I think that's about it. We are all lined up in that sense, too.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Raquel. Any questions? Renata is saying she can volunteer. Maybe you can take that offline with her, Raquel.
>> RAQUEL GATTO: Definitely. Thank you so much, Renata and anyone else, it's open. It's good to have everyone on board and in starting the IGF with a good spirit. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you and Acello is saying in the room as well that CENB is coming on a long journey. This is the fourth year and it's just getting stronger and stronger so appreciate all the effort from the group. Are there any, oh, we have DCs? Dynamic coalitions?
>> JUTTA CROLL: Hello, Jutta speaking here.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: You're just a little bit faint just to make sure everybody can hear you okay.
>> JUTTA CROLL: Is it better now?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Not really.
>> JUTTA CROLL: Oh, better now? Is it better now?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes. Thank you.
>> JUTTA CROLL: Okay. I'll just speak up. Just for all the dynamic coalitions, as I said before, their engagement in the main session is well performed and when you have a look at the interactive schedule, I do think all of the dynamic coalitions have optional for their workshop, the information on the program of the workshops so nothing else to add. Thank you. Bye.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Jutta. Any questions on any of the intersessional activities we've just covered? Not seeing anyone in the speaking queue. If we pop back to the working group updates, Rasha, are you still online able to give an update?
>> RASHA ABDULLA: Hi, Lynn. Yeah, I'm here. We met on October 17th. I sent the to the MAG. We basically went through the main changes that took place this year. We tried to assess each one of them and see what worked and what didn't and we came up with a list of recommendations for the MAG to consider to maybe put into effect next year if someone wants to continue fine tuning the process. One of the things that we talked about, for example, was to come up with more ways to sort of streamline the process or to achieve more liability basically to figure out what should be given, a score of three or four or five, and that entails basically two suggestions and that included sort of a very basic definition for each of the scores that the MAG might want to take up for next year.
But, also, we think that what would work is to have a pretest of sorts, like a trial run, on maybe either a mock proposal or maybe a proposal from this year, like an old proposal for the MAG to exercise with and try to apply the scorings and the criteria. And then maybe do a few workshops, two or three, and then have a call to discuss these scores and achieve a benchmark of what should be scored, you know, a three or a four, a five, or whatever.
And that way, it won't be up to the personal subjectist of each evaluator to give us a particular score, so, that there is more uniformity among the MAG members doing the scoring. We also recommend that grades of 5, scores of 5 be kept to a minimum. These should be only for excellence proposals where there is absolutely no more room for improvement and again we say that because we've noticed some kind of great inflation where, you know, some evaluators are maybe more generous with the great things than others so again, we think a couple suggestions that we made can take care of this, particularly, having a trial run of some sorts. And it's important to note that it's not the aim of that trial run would not to get everybody to approve of the scores being given but just to get a sense of what is a three or a four because if everybody scores it the same way, then we won't have a problem whether or not we think the score is a good fit for proposal but if we all agree on a certain benchmark and we stick to it, then that way we can achieve more liability in the scoring.
We also talked about a few technical things so maybe if we can have the ability to edit the scores of the sessions that we have already evaluated, a suggestion was made that we maybe do the scoring on Excel sheet and then upload it at the end of the process. And equip the Excel sheet with a column that sort of keeps calculating the average score that each grader is giving so that the person doing the grading is aware of, you know, of his or her average scores if they see that going up all the time, they know they're being too generous with the grades and they need to go back and maybe give it a lower scoring for some of the sessions, just be aware of how well or how high or low they're grading the proposals.
It's, the suggestion was also made that it would be useful to know the number of overall slots available maybe ahead of the second face to face MAG meeting as well as maybe the number of workshops to be approved like with no reservation. If that can be determined before the face to face meeting, that would save us time in the actual meeting to give to mergers and modifications and things like that.
We also feel that these mergers should be used sparingly. We felt that this year, there were maybe too many mergers. We don't think it's enough for proposals to be on the same topic to just be merged
(audio breaking up).
Minimal idea of, minimal standard to be considered with the main exceptions or the main candidates for mergers are workshops that promote diversity, either off topics or off speakers. We also, we discussed the extra step that was done this year of having the MAG sort of volunteer an area of expertise. We didn't feel that that was too beneficial to the process. We feel that maybe it is better to just do it the way it's been done before, just to assign workshops randomly to MAG members with the MAG members taking a look at these workshops well in advance, and if they feel that there's a workshop that's really out of their expertise area, that they just cannot figure out what it's talking about, that they would rue cause themselves from that workshop.
We predict that these would be very few cases would happen, of course. We also talked about that maybe format should be given less weight than the other three criteria, that's something for the MAG to maybe consider for next year. You're going to have to maybe try it out to see exactly how much less that weight should be so it might take a few trials and again, maybe in that pretest of our call, maybe that can be determined. We also feel strongly about having speakers be confirmed for the workshop because some of the workshops basically have, there's no guarantee that those who are listed on the proposal actually end up in the room. And we feel that it's a bit unfair to grade a proposal not knowing who is actually going to end up speaking on that proposal.
The idea of confirming three speakers was an improvement but we don't feel that it's enough because some proposers could list the names of, you know, influential speakers, for example, or somebody who is very well known in their field before even telling them or without even telling them and therefore, we're not sure if that, I mean, that definitely helps boost the scoring of a session and then we're not sure that person is going to show at the end of the day so we suggest that there would be a box next to each proposed speaker's name and that box would say, you know, this speaker has been contacted Andys to attend or something like that and the proposer would need to take that particular box and provide the speech's email and then an at automatic email is sent to the person who proposes their name and asking them to click a concern that they are indeed interested in that workshop and we propose that only then would that speaker be a confirmed speaker so it has to be an active process on the part of the proposal our final point is we also discussed the open forums. I know Lynn kind of disagrees with us on that but the feeling of the people on the call and we didn't get any objections to that when we posted it on the working group. We feel that open forums should be more limited than that and should have a bit more structure. We do acknowledge the structure and nature of the IGF as a United Nations forum but we just think it's a big chunk of the program that goes without the MAG knowing anything about it and probably by mere coincidence we've seen at least one example of a workshop that missed the deadline and ended up passing as an open forum.
We would like to see that, I mean, it could be a great session at the end but we think that there should be more of a structure to the MAG is at least aware of how this process goes and who ends up hosting an open forum. That's pretty much it. Happy to answer any questions or receive any comments.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Rasha. It was a very complete report and we've made a loss of progress over the last couple of years in this entire process and we appreciate the leadership you've shown. I do want to clarify one statement. I support all the recommendations with restrict to open forums. What I rejected to in the text I saw was something that implied that open forums were used for the purpose of simply getting in if you get your work shop proposal in too late. The way did was phrased is that it was being seriously abused.
>> RASHA ABDULLA: We hope that was taken care of.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: And it was. I gist want to clarify that was the only thing I objected to. Otherwise, think I'm in complete agreement. Many of the points you've raised have been raised in the past. Let me see if there are any other comments. What I'm going to proponed haven't had a chance to yet is that as part of the transition and we'll come up to that in a minute is that we actually have a joint session between the outgoing MAG members and incoming MAG members. Not a MAG meeting specifically because I think that is confusing when you have both incoming and outgoing MAG members but a session specifically dedicated to I think reviewing kind of the high points and success points. Current IGF and specific thing has such as the working groups and I think even the intersessional activities as well. But, just that we actually do a very specific more thoughtful handoff and hoping that time allows us to do that with respect to the MAG process so I think that would be a good time to pick this up. I think the next question to the incoming mag would be how they want to continue this work. In the MAG, another working group, are there some recommendations they would like to take up, et cetera so we get a Mexico earlier start on some of these process changes than we've been able to in past years.
>> RASHA ABDULLA: And just to put it on record, my MAG membership unfortunately ends but I'm happy to help so feel free to call on me if needed in any way, shape, or form.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you. Much appreciate the. I don't think there's anybody in the speaking queue. So, let me see, Julian, are you still on the call? Do you want to give us an update on the working group improvements?
>> JULIAN CASASBUENAS: Hello, can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes, we can.
>> JULIAN CASASBUENAS: Okay. Thank you, Lynn. Well, basically trying to route the advances we did in the working group, trying to put all the assessments and so far we have about seven of the categories that we work with. We could help especially for the end of the year working group and also and in some ways including them for proposals for the IGF. We believe the working group that perhaps will be for the secretaries into our document so we can extend more or do
(audio cut off
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Can you he still hear?
>> JULIAN CASASBUENAS: That we are recommending, perhaps yes? Flush
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: I thought I lost you for a moment, but continue. You're back.
>> JULIAN CASASBUENAS: Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, so basically what we want to do is present the results of these assessments there we did in the, with the volunteers of the working group and as I said, we believe that can be useful for other working groups like outreach and working group that you are leading as well, Lynn, related to the multiyear, I always feats the name of the groups, sorry and yeah, basically, that's what I have to say for now.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Julian. It's a tremendous amount of work you've all been doing and I think it's a very important piece of work as well. Not only because I think it will help us improve and evolve the IGF even further. I think it's important that everybody who has taken the time to make suggestions over the years understand that the MAG is paying attention and we are working to address them as well so it's, as I said, very important work. The, let me just move right no, I mean, I think with all of these, we need to get the, you know, kind of formal status reports out to the MAG.
The outgoing MAG and certainly get any comments and things in. And then, I do have a proposal for, you know, as I said, a more thoughtful, hopefully with more time, process for transitioning between the outgoing and the income MAG and that would actually allow kind of an exchange of ideas and an actual exchange, not just a series of emails or reports that are shipped over the net.
So, unless there are any specific questions for Julian at the moment on improvements, I will take a look at the speaking queue, which is empty. Then I would go to another one. Working groups, which is coms and outreach just to not put them last. Is there somebody who can actually speak to?
>> Hello, Lynn. Can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes, we can.
>> Yes. We are from the outgoing to give an update on working group hours. Let's say this year we just started assisting the IGF Secretariat and communication, the IGF community and a large community which could have interest with IGF activities in order to increase into IGF records. And IGF meeting activities. So, this year we'll help to weed out activities like DC, CENB. Languages like Spanish, French, and also we noted this year, this last day which is something which is very, very instinctive and interesting just was we received the one who shared from the to their IGF to. Now for the next step would like to advise on different platforms but also communication platforms like using events. For example, and going on for the media coverage on preactivities on IG activities, on activities. Also, we recommend communication tools to design on IGF trend and distributing IGF. Lastly, we are done by IGF Secretariat on relations was very instructive for the nonEnglish people so working group communication, understand as main partners of compliance in order to reach out to the community. Thank you, that was my update.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Mamadou. Thank you for all the work. It's actually been quite an active group this year and in particular, thank you for your comments on translating the work, the website as well. I know everybody has been quite anxious to understand how well that worked and how helpful it it was so really appreciate your comments on that. Are there any other comments just now for Mamadou?
>> Yes, hello?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes, hello? You're very faint.
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Yeah, this is Wisdom.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Wisdom, you're very faint.
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Sorry. Hello? Is it okay now?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes, that's better.
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Okay. Just to two things on my mind. The first one is I'm looking at the rewards platform. I don't know if this has been completed to the public. If it hasn't, then I think it's something that I also have complete. The link, remote audience can get a link during the session. The other one is,
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: You've gone very faint now, wisdom, but what I understood you asking earlier is if the details for remote participation have been communicated publicly yet. And we'll make sure the Secretariat follows up on that.
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Yes as well as the platform, these two things. It should be completed, aware the public. I'm thinking if possible add a registration that it collects our e mail addresses and phones so if they can come out with a list, published for everyone.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Wisdom, your second comment was really hard to hear. Let me ask the Secretariat, I don't know if you've been in touch, but do they understand what they're asking? Do they got the response. Repeat, and maybe just speak a little more loudly?
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Hello? Hello?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Could you just repeat your second request.
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Yeah, the second request is regards to the queuing platform.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. Okay.
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Yes, I'm saying that is also become potentially a problem.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. We'll make sure the Secretariat is very clear on that as well.
>> WISDOM DONKOR: Thank you very much.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you. Those are excellent points. So, there are two more working group updates left. I'm chairing or co chairing both of those. The MW multiyear strategic work program has met 11 times over periods from May until last week, you guess. We have nearly agreed status report has been previously reported to the MAG in terms of the work that we were moving forward with the platform which was published a week or two to the broader community as well which attempts to capture the current processes, inputs, outputs, responsibilities, yeah, has actually talked us through that on MAG calls a few times.
(audio breaking up)
The evaluation for that will close shortly after the IGF meeting and that would be used as a basis, then, I think for future kind of process recommendations. I don't mean to do that any injustice but cutting it short but again, it has been in front of the MAG several times and in fact the programming request is out both in front of the MAG and the broader community.
Some of the other activities it we're continuing to discuss within the working group. There were a couple of proposals made that would help us advance some year programs. There was not consensus reached within the working group, but some members feel very strongly that the proposal should continue to be considered and I think we need get to agreement within a working group on how to represent the current status. I think we're very close. Very, very close. I just need to catch up on some emails that have come in the last few days and I think we're only just, only trying to make sure we've actually got the representation right with respect to the status in the working group. I think it's pretty clear that given the members of the working group that believe the proposals should continue to be discussed that those would go forward as part of this status report and would be put in front of the incoming MAG as well.
But, again, I hope to actually get that out and concluded the next day or two. The next one on fundraising and then see if anybody wants to come in with questions on either of those two. I should mention, the co chair of the multiyear strategic work program as well. He joined a couple months ago and I've appreciated his help in terms of trying to drive some of the work forward because it's been a lift here the last few months. I turned to the working group on fundraising, which I chaired and June Ipparis joined me a few weeks ago. Again, much appreciated trying to move the work forward. I think as a group, we've done a tremendous amount in terms of documenting procedures, improving the website, respect to donors, donor information, recognition, I've had great support from Dessa in terms of really understanding kind of the modalities of how this works within the UN. The IGF is already pushing quite a number of barriers in terms of what we're doing with donors on how we represent them on the website and the information we provide with respect to financial statements and that sort of thing so I think there's been some really useful learnings and sharings there. We're just about to publish a pretty thorough document that talks about the IGF, the fundraising, what funds are used for. Right. Now, it's in a document flow. We're actually going to post some frequently asked questions around that as well. I don't know if we'll get to change the format ahead of the IGF but if forgot, it will be if not, it will be done shortly thereafter. We've agreed I think a very, very good one page letter to kind of kick off fundraising overtours to possible donors of we've set up the with the Secretariat support a platform to collect kind of a prioritized set of donors. That's yet to be populated but a lot of us are just working off lists and haven't had time to populate the system yet but we've all reviewed and I think it will be a useful and still fairly light weight tool.
And we just completed a post card design with support from the Dutch government, the Dutch NRI. Sylvia Cadena and a number of other members from the fundraising working group which allow us to just basically say the IGF needs you. We need donors. We need support. But, in a, I think an appropriate light touch way if I can say that. The post cards are being printed and we will be handing those out in the back of the IGF, also the Paris peace forum and possibly the GovTech summit and you think this will be a good learning for us in terms of whether or not this is something which is useful and can be extended further either through MAG members and/or something we can make available to the NRIs possibly with some slight modifications that would support their fundraising efforts as well. I think it's been a very small working group but extremely dedicated. I think we've gotten through a tremendous amount of work. I think possibly physical therapy only kind of down side that we had to do an awful lot of, I guess I would say sort of operational or administrative work clarify somebody kind of responsibilities and roles and that sort of thing.
And that meant that the actual overtures to donors I think came very late and are still in very, very early stages. I think the good news is we'll be prepared to build on the contacts we can make at this IGF and follow up now with a lot of the machinery in place, if you will, behind it. I think a lot of this still needs to be written up and documented, but as I said, we've been getting great support from Dessa and from the Secretariat and everybody recognizes how important it is to build up the financial resources in the trust fund. Again, they support the Secretariat and support to some of the intersessional activities. Not the annual IGF meetings itself. So, obviously, having a robust enough trust fund is extremely central, extremely critical to the success of the IGF.
Again, I started actually writing up the status report for that. I frankly haven't gotten all that far but it will be a part of the status report and part of the transition both to the outgoing MAG and to the incoming MAG in the weeks to come.
Let me just see if there are any comments on any of those working groups or do any of the working group members either from NWP or fund, if there's anything you feel is important to bring up and call out here, now. Doing a slow count to six.
Okay. Not seeing any requests. If we can move to the last oh, Renata? You have your hand up? You have the floor, Renata.
>> RENATA AQUINO RIBEIRO: Can you hear me?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes. A little bit faint, but yes.
>> RENATA AQUINO RIBEIRO: Okay. Is this better?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yes. Much better.
>> RENATA AQUINO RIBEIRO: Okay. I just wanted to suggest to the working group on fundraising to think about formats such as the hack a thon that the Paris east forum is doing because you can get a lot of our organizations together interested in collaborating with the IGF website and, or doing tools for the IGF, which aren't really direct but are as important as the rest of the work that is needed for evaluation, systems for evaluation. I think there are so many things that the working groups have shown can be dealt with electronically and having teams working on that would be a great idea for next year, of course. Thanks.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Yeah, I think those are good ideas. I'd like to see next year and it's a bit of a catch 22 because we need more resources to better resource the Secretariat because if we had Secretariat support or consultant support in terms of supporting these work groups, that would be tremendous. I know I spend an awful lot of time trying to schedule the meetings, get the meetings and a lot of administrative work than I do the more substantive paces of it so I think there are things we could do to advance the work a little more quickly. Some of it is resource constraint and I'm sure some of it is just getting some better ideas in place. So, I appreciate your comments and look more to hearing more and thinking a little bit more about what else we can learn with respect to advancing the work. Offline.
I think we've also had an awful lot of MAG meetings this year, these MAG virtual meetings probably more than in past years and I think that's partly influenced some of the additional items we were trying to move forward and again, rather kind of collapsed time, if you will. So, yeah, any other ideas ouch, Renata. Always happy to hear them. Sala, you had your hand up as well?
>> Thank you, Lynn. I just thought I'd put it on the chat
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: A little faint, too, Sala.
>> Sorry, can you hear me now?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: That's better.
>> Right. So I just thought I'd verbally mention to speak rather than put in the chat, the working group, to thank all the working group chairs for the mazing work that's been done in the year. As you said, Lynn, there's never been as many virtual meetings compared to the past years. But, one of the things I would like to see, I think I mentioned it slightly in the chat, is to see how we can work and consolidate some of the things and partially institution process history. If possible, goes through IGF, (inaudible). But, if that's beyond our budget, then, obviously, remote. So, that when the first meeting happens in 2019, it's very seamless transition because I've had a few MAG members tell me by June oh, I didn't know about that. Sort of learning. As we all had to do.
But, I think there are ways to make it seamless so that if they just go from string to string. But, again, thank you to all the amazing working group Chairs and members and co chairs. Thank you.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Sala. I mean, everybody, all the MAG members who worked so hard this year as well. Certainly all the thematic main session organizers and all the intersessional participation support and I think it's been a large lift. And partly because if everybody is fairly kind of bent on doing what we can to strengthen and improve on the IGF. And there's a lot of momentum coming out of 2015 and the ten year mandate and I think that gave us all a lift. And it is requiring more work than I think has been in the past.
If I could just comment quickly on a couple of the points here as we talk to the transition. I don't believe there is any, and I thought we'd actually closed this down a couple of MAG meetings ago, no formal MAG meeting during the IGF. For one thing, we're in a very compressed schedule. This year with three days, no day zero and losing a day of the IGF. I think if people want to get together informally, I know some people were trying to organize that, I think that's great.
I just know that when I look at all the receptions and lunchtime events and you look at the security which I think is going to be quite severe, given the 50, 60 heads of state, prison Macro, Secretary General, et cetera, of the IGF, I think there's some complications this year that we haven't had, good complications, but complications that we haven't had in past years, which is . I think that we're going to use the IGF and get the incoming and outgoing MAG members together, of course, we'd have to have the incoming MAG he members appointed significantly earlier to ensure that we actually get participation, have the opportunity to get everybody there.
If I come to this year, the Secretary General's office is still working very hard to pull the MAG appointment process together to complete it. It is still everyone's goal and intent to have the incoming MAG announced no later than during the IGF, then it was kind of a stretch goal of just before the IGF. But, clearly, now it's looking like during the IGF. Everybody understands the importance of that and the importance of our work as well as, of course, working to improve the IGF.
So, think, you know, in very good faith, everybody is working really hard to make that line.
What we would like, but we're not certain the budget will support yet for next year as well would be to have three MAG physical MAG meetings next year. One in probably sort of a January timeframe, which would Lou us to look at some of the more strategic issues with more time, frankly. Also, look at some of the operational achievements with many of the processes and workshop evaluation, we're kind of building and testing them as we're actually trying to manage the process, and then that's hard to do so if we could get a start on a number of those activities by having a first MAG meeting in January, that would be excellent.
With the second meeting roughly in kind of an April timeframe and the third MAG meeting in June, sort of maybe early July timeframe. There are no dates yet. I said we need to get past this IGF and look at some of the finances and understand what's supportable for next year. But, irrespective of whether they're not there are two or three physical MAG meetings, what I would like to propose, and I will do this in writing because there's not even quite half of the MAG here on the call so I want to make sure that we get a chance to hear from everyone, is suggest that we have either one or maybe two joint meetings, not necessarily MAG meetings. Again, as I said earlier, I think that maybe kind of complicates the roles a little bit, but structured meetings where we actually have presentations on the working group updates, perhaps on stock taking, on what worked well at the IGF. Hear from the intersessional activities as well just so that the incoming mag actually does have, as Sala said, the benefit and all the wisdom of the outgoing MAG members as well that we set that up in a structured manner. And that, it would actually take place in a virtual meeting format. Again, I can't imagine, though it would be great if we did, that we would have the funds to actually have a physical meeting of incoming MAG members in the few months. I think that has its own complication as well. But, so, I'm putting that out there.
Just if there's any kind of immediate reactions, I will work to write that up. We can certainly talk about the transition between the two. I don't know how quickly we will get any clarity on what the MAG meeting schedule is for next year, and of course, all this depends on the incoming MAG being announced and what that date is. But, it certainly seems as though all signs are that it will be very soon and certainly not March, as it's been the past two years so that's already a huge plus.
Are are there any comments or hands up? I don't see anybody in the speaking queue at the moment. So, I think I answered the question on the reading binge question on the new MAG, I had a call this morning, Chengetai and I had a call this morning with New York. Again, hard to get it announced no later than the IGF itself as well. So, that's still what we're working towards. Any other comments or anything? Quickly here under AOB? With that, you know, we'll do a lot of this on email and things in the weeks to come, but I'd like to thank everybody for all the super, super efforts this year. I think it's going to be a great IGF. I'm hopeful that we can really make some inroads in terms of significant increase and senior policy maker participation, ministerial level and the like. And that we continue to advance in kind of more private sector participation as well. If there are no more comments, then, I'll let everybody go. Thank you for those that stayed on late. Again, it is important, I think, to switch these around and siren apologies for my joining late. I'm not sure what happened with my calendar but we put our clocks back here in the U.S. last weekend, so, I guess there was a mistake there somewhere. Thank everybody. See you in Paris in just a few day's time.