[IRPCoalition] IRP Coalition Co.Chairs; Message #1

[Marianne Franklin]

Dear IRP Coalition members,

It is a pleasure for both of us to be co-Chairing the IRP Coalition for the coming year and we are very pleased to be able to greet you all on the new mailing list. Thank you for your patience with the various emails sent to you about this in the last couple of weeks. Before we sum up the tasks ahead of us and ideas for moving forward that came from the IRP Meeting in Baku, we would like to take convey our thanks and gratitude to Dixie Hawtin who co-Chaired the coalition this past year. Hers is a hard act to follow so we hope to be able to maintain her standard and refined and diplomatic approach to this work. Thank you Dixie!

The rest of this longish mail is an overview of the IRP Meeting outcomes and look ahead. We will be sending call-outs and requests separately for each key piece of business to keep things clear.

1) BAKU IGF:

The IGF 2012 Baku meeting is behind us and as you all know there are important meetings coming up in which the IRP Coalition (as a whole and also in partnership with coalition members who are working on specific projects) can and needs to be involved in. The main outcome of the IRP Meeting as Dixie noted is that the meeting (about 30-35 present) endorsed the Coalition's work on the IRP Charter and Ten Principles. Promoting both these documents was considered a major objective. Another one was for the coalition to come up with ways to unpack the Charter itself in terms of taking specific clauses as projects or themes for interventions in relevant meetings.

This work is something the Charter can call its own as well as coordinate and work with Coalition members who are doing their own work in these area e.g. APC, the Best Bits initiative, ITforChange, and partners in Brazil to name but a few.

There are minutes of the meeting and we can send this around if people want them. So, to turn to tasks ahead:

2) TASKS AHEAD & MOVING FORWARD

a) STEERING COMMITTEE elections. Thank you to all of those who have been or have self-nominated for the new Steering Committee. We will be back about this in a separate email as we hope to have a new committee voted in before the end of the year.

We also have a number of new members, and people who would like to join. If anyone on this list is newly arrived do introduce yourself!

b) IRP Coalition IGF REPORT; if people could continue sending through their impressions and thoughts about the Baku meeting for the report that would be helpful. We will then send the draft through for feedback and refining in the usual way. This report is about what the coalition did but also provides feedback to the IGF secretariat.

c) UPCOMING EVENTS: The following are places and meetings in which we have already been active, or involved with others in activities. Others are ones we might want to consider in terms of unpacking the Charter, or creating synergies with others.

- WCIT 2012; Is there anyone who is going who would be willing to act as rapporteur for the Coalition? This event is next week so we have little time to organize a coalition event.

- UNESCO WSIS +10 Meeting in Paris this coming February. The call for panels is out and the deadline in 10th December. This might be a good opportunity for members who are involved in education and outreach around human rights and the Internet to move the IRP Charter on around the education and diversity clauses. These need work and have had relatively little attention. See http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project-activities/unesco-and-wsis/wsis-10-review-meeting/

Is anyone already involved or interested in organizing a Coalition panel there? Please let us all know.

-EURODIG: the European Dialogue on Internet Governance will be in Lisbon next year in May. The coalition has been very active in these meetings; the new Council of Europe Expert Group initiative is where the IRP Charter has clearly a concrete role to play. Any coalition members interested in organizing something for this event, please let us know.

- IGF 2013: this is in Bali. Indonesia. It is a while away but organizing events takes place ahead so we will keep you posted. If people or organizations are planning anything around Bali, good to let us know for coordination purposes.

- Are the any other events to consider?

3) MOVING FORWARD and PROJECTS

A list below based on the meeting outcome and discussions since around how the Coalition can move forward and also continue the work started with the IRP Charter as the baseline document.

a) Promoting and working with the IRP Charter more thoroughly by breaking it down into 'byte-sized' projects around one or more clauses. Flesh these out, debate, develop and apply accordingly.

b) Educational: Gathering knowledge about curricula around IG and human rights in which the Charter, along with other rights-based projects from members, can be included. Here work with the Ten Principles as an outreach and educational tool as an access point to the fuller Charter. All imaginative ideas and concrete educational aids welcome; perhaps a list of current courses in which the Charter or HR issues around IG feature would be worth compiling.

c) Development and Refinement of the IRP Charter itself; Formatting the Charter (already 30 pages, including commentaries, appendices, and the preambles/Ten Principles) to have it easier to read and access as a whole. A one-stop document project that needs coordination and some editing/publishing skills

d) Creating collaborative links with coalition member-organizations and others beyond the coalition.

e) The mailing list: recreate a space for constructive and lively debate around issues of common concern that need discussion and also organize and liaise on specific projects.

f) Outreach; a Young People's section of the Coalition was one idea mooted; we co-Chairs support this idea. Anyone want to take the lead here?

g) Continue developing the content on the IRP website (www.irpcharter.org); retrieve the list archives to store on the new list server; make more use of the coalition's Facebook and Twitter feeds.

All material for these three outlets can be sent to Minda Moreira and Keith Hubbard (mindamoreira at hotmail.com; keith.a.hubbard at gmail.com)

ANY OTHER BUSINESS? Let us know

That's all for now. Any suggestions or comments gladly received. We'll be back with the Steering Committee nominations and voting schedule.

Looking forward to working with you all.

warm regards
Marianne Franklin & Matthias Kettemann
Co-Chairs IRP Coalition.


-- 

Dr Marianne Franklin
Reader
Convener: Global Media & Transnational Communications Program
Goldsmiths, University of London
Dept. of Media & Communications
New Cross, London SE14 6NW
Tel: +44 20 7919 7072
<m.i.franklin at gold.ac.uk>
@GloComm
https://twitter.com/GloComm
http://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/franklin/
https://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-global-media-transnational-communications/

Dr Matthias C. Kettemann, LLM (Harvard)
Institute of International Law and International Relations
University of Graz, Austria
T | +43 316 380 6711
E | matthias.kettemann at uni-graz.at
Blog | Twitter | Facebook | 
Google+<https://plus.google.com/u/0/116310540881122884114/posts>

  

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