[WSIS CS-Plenary] Individuals and organizations (was Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] formatfor Tunis Summit)

[Milton Mueller]

Another point about this:

>>> vb at bertola.eu.org 3/18/2005 5:22:30 AM >>>
>The emergence of informal online movements and individual
>activism, side by side with traditional NGOs, is IMHO a key change
that
>has happened in civil society in the last few years. If you take a
look
>at online campaigns, most of them are made by both individuals and
>organizations, rallying around a website or mailing list; they often
do
>not correspond to any specific organization. For me, this was made
much
>more evident from our experience at ICANN in the last years, where a
>representative structure based only on organizations failed in
including
>many interested stakeholders.

The problem was not simply that the representative structure was based
on organizations, but that ICANN management and specific elites in the
US decided that it was too scary for individuals to hold real voting
power over the half the Board. Thus, the actual influence of individuals
who might be active was reduced to the point where it made no sense to
participate. It is no surprise that if you dis-empower people, they
don't participate.

--MM