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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>> Hello. This is Rudolf.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi, Rudolf. It's Eleanora from the Secretariat. We can hear you.
>> Hello.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi.
>> Hello, this is Arsene.
>> Hello, I'm Rajesh from India.
>> Hi, this is Maria.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Hi, Rajesh and Maria, we can hear you.
>> Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Hi, this is Chengetai.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: We can hear you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Hello. Two more minutes, see if other people join us. Usually takes a bit of time to load the application. I'd also ask if people could please mute themselves. So, hello, ladies and gentlemen. A big, warm welcome to our incoming MAG members. And as you know, this session is just an introductory session for the new MAG members and thank you for the continuing and I won't say older, but those ones who have been rotated out, members for joining us. As you can see on the screen, we have the agenda here and we'll also be using the hand up system. I hope everybody could join in and I think Luis will paste the link where you can start asking questions on agenda item number eight. And with that, if you can see the agenda, does anybody have any additions to the agenda? Then I will give it the usual three count? No. Okay. Then we'll start. Hello, yes?
>> Hello?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, can you please speak? Is that Ananda? No. Okay. I'll then continue. So, first of all, I'll just do a very brief introduction of myself, the Secretariat b and then I'll hand it over to Lynn to say a few words and then we'll go on with the agenda items. So, my name is Chengetai Masango. I think most of you know me as the IGF Secretariat. We'll go on, as well as introduction to MAG and other processes within the system.
I'd just like to quickly introduce the team here. First of all, we have Luis suppose Bobo, who is the associate information systems officer. Luis. And he's in charge of the technical aspects, the websites, the mailing list, et cetera. So if you have any issues or problems, Luis Bobo is the person to write an email to. Then we have Anja Gengo who is the national IGF focal point and she liaises with the national initiatives. Then we have Eleanora Mazzucchi. She's the program manager assistant and you will be in touch with her for a whole range of things from travel, from best practice forums, Dynamic Coalition Dynamic Coalitions, and with us, we also have Mariana Canto ‑‑ so you'll also be interact Walgreen's them.
With that, I'll just hand the floor over to Lynn St. Amour, you have the floor.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Chengetai. I'll echo your very warm welcome to MAG members and also echo past comments thanking the outgoing MAG members. I'd also like to recognize and thank the Secretariat general, his office and DESSA office for the very timely appointment of the new MAG members and certainly of the new Chair as well. The last several years, the has actually come quite late and that has sort of squeezed the work of the MAG so we're very fortunate and pleased this year to have it the timely appointment which gives us approximately three additional months to sort of achieve the work of the MAG.
And I'm not going to make any lengthy comments now because this isn't a formal MAG meeting. Is really is meant to serve as an introductory orientation session for incoming MAG members so we're going to cover the major items from the last MAG simply so everybody understands where they fit into the work of the MAG, not the item itself. I think we'll have a second meeting which will cover status updates from the working groups and major policies initiatives, Dynamic Coalitions, et cetera. So, this meeting is really meant to focus on kind of the roles, expectations of MAG members and not on the substantive work itself. That will come in a second meeting.
And then, of course, through the MAG meetings over the rest of the year.
But I think receive really have a unique opportunity to make this pretty substantive advancements and improvements for the IGF ecosystem in full based on so many of the stock taking activities and discussions from past MAG meetings and retreats. Certainly look forward to working with everybody. I'll turn it back to the Secretariat who managed through the agenda here and I was just trying to look quickly because Chengetai, you didn't speak to DESSA roles and I don't actually see anybody from DESA on the call.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: I'll speak to that on item number 2.
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Okay. Great and could you just do one other thing which is ensure everyone is aware of transcriptions and recordings and that sort of thing. Probably also somewhere in there but earlier rather than later would be useful.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes. As you may know, this call is being transcribed and it's also being recorded in the WebEx so everything you say will be recorded. The transcriptions will be posted on the MAG meetings and also, I think there's one or two incoming MAG members who are not able to make this call so it will be available for them to listen to and I think I've already gone over when, if you wanted to request for the floor. You can use the hand‑up system. If you are unable to connect, you can contact Luis. Physical will tell me how you are named in the WebEx?
>> LUIS BOBO: Yes, you can just write a private chat to IGF Secretariat.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes. To IGF Secretariat and then he will help you out. So, the first item on the agenda, I see, was the introduction by new members. So, very quickly because this can take a very long time. I'll call them out, actually, if you can just state your name, your region, what organization you're from and maybe one quick hopes and dreams statement about yourself. If you want to, you don't need to. So, I won't try to pick up the new MAG members. I'll just go alphabetically. Even if it's old, just state whether you're first year, second year, or third year MAG member. So, let's start with Arnold. If he can speak. I don't think so, because I don't see a mic next to his name.
>> LUIS BOBO: No, hi, Chengetai. Sorry, it does not seem. That he can.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: We'll go to the next person and please say your name carefully because I'm also learning how to say your names so Arsene.
>> ARSENE TUNGALI: Hello, can you hear me?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, we can. A bit faint but we can.
>> ARSENE TUNGALI: So, it's Arsene. It's a French name, so that would be the easiest way to say my name. So, this is Arsene Tungali. I come from ‑‑ African region. Representing a civil society stakeholder group. Working on a range of, currently focused on internet freedoms and other activities so I'm really happy to be joining the group as a first‑year MAG member. And I really look forward to it.
Thank you very much. Forgive my English. French is actually my first and my native language but I'm struggling with my English so thank you very much.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you. And then we'll go to Ben.
>> BEN WALLIS: Hi, thanks, Chengetai. I'm Ben Alice. I'm British but I live in the United States ‑‑ Wallis. I'm British but I live in the United States in Seattle. I work on internet governance policy. This is my second year as a MAG member and I'm very much looking forward to it. Thanks.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you. Then on my list, I've got call‑in number 2, user 2. Hello, can you say something? Caller number 2? Okay. I think caller number 2 is having a conversation in the background so we'll go to Carlos. Carlos Afonso.
>> CARLOS AFONSO: Can you hear me? Great. I'm Carlos Afonso from Brazil and I'm a former member of the CGI and currently working with the internet society as well, the chapter. And I have been on all the IGFs until 2015 in , I couldn't go to Mexico because the doctor decided to open up my chest and intervene there and fix the pipes.
And then in 2017 and 2018, I participated only remotely but I do hope to collaborate and be present in the discussions of the MAG. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, Carlos. Next, I'll go to Afi. Afi, sorry, can we try again, Afi, I'm calling on you. Okay. Maybe he's not ‑‑ Okay. That's fine. Let's go to the next person. Sorry if I'm saying your name wrong, Ale? Alejandra? Alejandra, you have the floor. No?
Okay. We'll go to the next person, then. Ananda. Ananda, please? Okay. We can't hear him. We'll come back to you. If you manage to speak, you can put a message in the chat. Okay.
Then, Chenai.
>> Hi, can you hear me?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, we can.
>> CHENAI: Hi, everyone. My name is Chenai. I'm Zimbabwen based in South Africa. I work as a researcher and a communications manager. I've been part of IGF since 2015. I've attended Africa IGF, national IGFs and global IGFs and I look forward to learning and participating in the Mark and ensuring more inclusive participation. That's it.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much next is Concinetta.
>> CONCINETTA CASSA: Hello, thank you, Chengetai. My name is TT is my nickname. I work, this is my second year and I'm really proud to be in the groups. Okay. Thanks.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. Thank you. Next, I have Heiki.
>> HEIKI SIBUL: Yeah, did you hear me?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, we can hear you.
>> HEIKI SIBUL: My name is Heiki Sibul. I am from Estonia Internet Society foundation. I also lead the national IGF. So that's it.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. Thank you. Julian?
>> JULIAN CASASBUENAS: Hello, everybody. I'm Julian Casasbuenas. I am a former member and I've been involved in lots of IGF and also Columbian IGF. I'm willing to work and participate in activities that support make work, thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, Julian. The next one, yes Juliana. Please, you have the floor, Juliana. Okay. We'll go to Jutta.
>> JUTTA CROLL: Yes, hello, Chengetai. Thanks for giving me the floor. My name is Jutta Croll I I'm working in Germany as a project manager and I'm also Chairwoman of the Board foundation serving to the MAG in my second term, just starting second term, and my area of expertise is children's rights and child protection on the internet. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, Jutta. Lianna?
>> LIANNA GALSTYAN: Hello, everyone. My name is Lianna Galstyan. I'm from Armenia, with the Armenian IGF. I'm also member of the executive committee for the internet ‑‑ which is CD. This is also my second term to it the MAG and I welcome all the incoming MAG members. Looking forward to collaboration with all of you. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you. Lucien? You have the floor. Okay. We'll go to the next one. Makane?
>> MAKANE FAYE: Hello?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Hello, yes, we can hear you.
>> MAKANE FAYE: This is Makane Faye from the African it Internet Governance Forum. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: All right. Thank you. Maria?
>> MARIA PAZ CANALES: Hello, everyone. This is Maria Paz Canales. I am incoming member for the MAG. I am Executive Director of nonprofit organization in Chile, we work in all Latin American region. I am also a member of the organized committee of the IGF for our region and have been involved with IGF, global IGFs since 2016 so I hope to continue to work with the group. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you, Maria. Next one is Markus.
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Hello, can you hear me? Markus Kummer. Some of you know me as the Chair of the organization which has been funding many of the regional IGFs. I'm former IGF Secretariat. Thanks.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. And then we have Marilyn? Marilyn, are you able to speak? Ah, Okay. We'll give you some time. Mary?
>> MARY UDUMA: It will, everyone, can you hear me? I'm Mary Rose from the Philippines and I'm delighted to be part of MAG 2019. I'm founder of women power digital. It's a private community organization empowering women's rights and I'm also one of the open internet for democracy leaders and advocate for internet governance so I'm looking forward to working with everyone (rose speaking)
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Then we have the other Mary, Mary Uduma. Maybe somebody can unmute her? Then we'll go to Nebojsa.
>> NEBOJSA REGOJE: Hi, everybody. I hope you hear me. My name is Nebojsa Regoje. I'm spokesman of the Bosnian, so I'm representing governance stakeholder group. This is my second term as a MAG member and I'm looking forward to working with all others. All of the best and talk to you later.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much. Paul, I don't know whether you can speak but there's no microphone near you but I'll just call your name in any case no. Rajesh?
>> RAJESH CHHARIA: Hi, this is Rajesh Chharia. I'm the chairman of the executive advisory board in India and Secretariat of the executive council committee. My expertise is in organizing the event as well as I'm very keen to work for the online safety of the child and woman. Thank you very much.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you, Rajesh. Renata? Renata? Ah. Okay. And Ricardo?
>> RICARDO PEREZ: Hello, everyone. Thank you. My name is Ricardo from Argentina. I work in the ‑‑ center but currently I work in the government since 2016. I am leading some issues related to internet such as IoT, big data, and I hope to continue this work. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Roman?
>> ROMAN CHUKOV: Hello. Thank you inquiry hay? Hello, everyone. Chengetai, thank you for this opportunity to gather together. It's a huge moment for me to represent Russia as the government stakeholder group. I work in the Russian academy of science and institute of economy. I'm also serving as the Russian white winter sherpa and also work with Congress on major Russian events so please count on my support on any of these national tracks and I'm really looking forward to work with any of you on any matters. Thank you so much.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you. Rudolf?
>> RUDOLF GRIDL: Hello, this is Rudolf Gridl from Germany. I'm in the Ministry of economic affairs responsible for internet governance issue and in this function, I will be very much in charge of organizing the host country organizations for the next IGF 2019 in Berlin. I'm looking forward to working with all of you. This is my second year in the MAG. Welcome to the new members and also, of course, to the old hands.
And I said, looking forward to working with all of you. Thank you to the Secretariat. Thank you to the Chair. Thank you to all you who already know for the support that we're going to need for this big endeavor that is ahead of us. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you, Rudolf. Susan?
>> SUSAN CHALMERS: Hello, everybody. My name is Susan Chalmers. I work at the national telecommunications and information administration at the U.S. department of commerce. And I'm happy to be a MAG member. I've been involved in the IGF community, I guess you could say, since 2011 and of course we're a part of the WIYAG group so happy to work with everybody. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you, Susan. Timea?
>> TIMEA SUTO: Hi, everyone, can you hear me?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, we can.
>> TIMEA SUTO: Thank you. My name is Timea Suto. I'm national of Romania and Hungary and returning for second term. I'm part of the digital policy team at the international chamber of commerce where I also manage IPC's business action to support information in society initiative and I'm looking forward to continuing on the Mark and working with you all.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you, Timea. And then last on my list but not least is Xiaofeng Tao?
>> XIAOFENG TAO: Thank you, Chengetai. Can you hear me? I'm Xiaofeng Tao from Beijing University of telecommunication. I'm also a member of China association for science and technology. I'm second year MAG member. I'm grateful to be here with you. Thank you very much.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much. I think we've got everybody. We can. I don't know if there's somebody I missed. If you can just --
>> AFI EDOH: Hello? Thank you everyone. My name is Afi Edoh. I'm a new member.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much. Can you mute yourself now, please? Okay. Thank you anybody else?
>> Hi, can I comment?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, please do.
>> ADAMA JALLOW: My name is Adama Jess Jallow. I'm also executive member of the IGF in Zambia. Thank you very much.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you. I think that's all of them, everybody that can speak?
>> LUCIEN CASTEX: Hi, can you hear me? Lucien Castex speaking. Just connected my mic so it's now working. So, I'm French. I represent the technical community. I'm Secretariat general of the French chapter of the Internet Society and co‑chair of the French IGF. I'm also a researcher in ICT policy at University. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: All right. Thank you very much. And I'll just count to three. If there's anybody else I've missed.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Chengetai, it's Lynn. I'll come in for a moment quickly. Is Ananda able to speak? It looks like the mic is unmuted and I don't think we heard earlier.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yeah, that's the thing. She's not speaking. Okay. Well, we can come back and I think let's move on.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. So just quickly. I'm Lynn St. Amour. This is my fourth year as Chair of the MAG. Just very briefly, I've attended every IGF and as the ISOC CEO and president, I attended WSIS1 and WSIS2 and each of the prep come meetings which were week-long in sports of those two and of course those were important because they gave us the Tunis agenda, which Chengetai is going to speak to in a few moments.
But, I'm very, very happy to be here. Happy to be appointed again and really look forward to making a significant contribution through the work of the entire IGF community, the MAG and of course all the intersessional activities and the NRIs as well so thank you, and Chengetai, back to you now.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much. Okay. The next item on the agenda is just a very, very quick overview review of the Tunis agenda and brief background on the working group on internet governance which it can be said the IGF came from. I would like to get Markus Kummer who was WSIS government during the WSIS process and also the executive coordinator of the working group on internet governance and the first and also the executive coordinator of the IGF before he retired so I'd just like to get him to do a very brief introduction on that. Markus, please?
>> MARKUS KUMMER: Thank you, Chengetai and everybody. I will try and be brief as many of you have been part of the process but since there are also new comers to this, it may be useful for them to have some background to know where we come from. As Lynn and Chengetai said, obviously, the IGF goes back to the working group on information society, generally known by WSIS. First WSIS took place in Geneva. Then, internet governance came on the agenda. Some didn't really know what to do so they thought, let's have a working group on internet governance with the working definition on internet governance. This working group in many ways provided for the MAG as it had working group on internet governance. Said, four from five of the 20 regions get representatives and other 20 were then representatives of other stakeholders and I saw a new member of the MAG is an old member of the working group on internet governance, Carlos Afonso. It's great to see you on the MAG.
And the working group on internet governance, they work in a very open, transparent format and they did the work they were asked to do and they presented their report which was then by and large endorsed by the secretaries of WSIS and Tunis in 2005 and they had a working definition of internet governance and that is an important foundational definition which is the basis of all the work of the Internet Governance Forum. And it still creates some confusions as internet governance does not refer to governance but the abstract notion of governance. It reads, the private sector and civil society in their respect, the shared principles, norms, rules, decision making procedures and programs that shape the evolution and use of the internet.
So, these are important concepts. It's not just governments, but it involves all stakeholders and it relates to all issues pertaining to use of the internet and the development of the internet.
And the summit also said recognized that the existing arrangements for internet governance work effectively but the summit said a big bunch that there's need for enhanced cooperation. That was a diplomatic compromise. It was essentially the notion that something more and something else should be done that nobody could agree on what that was. And some argue that the IGF is actually this enhanced cooperation between stakeholders whereas some others still say there's need forb something else. But the major recommendation coming out of the report for policy issues pertaining to the use of the internet, and that is the IGF, the Internet Governance Forum, and that is what we have been working on ever since 2006 when the first IGF took place.
The mandate is fairly clear that it is here as a forum to discuss, a forum for discussion. It's not a decision making forum. IGF has no operational tasks. There's one subparagraph which has given rise to some discussion. It allows ‑‑ that's 72G. It allows the IGF to make recommendations, but there is also a qualifier, it says, where appropriate. And that is for diplomats, quite often, the caveat. It means, essentially, it's a proposal that allows them to veto any recommendation because then you jump back from where appropriate.
But, this is something the IGF has been struggling on ever since, should or should it not make recommendations? And over the years I think the IGF has edged closer to coming up with agreed outcomes as many critics have said, this is the main weakness of the IGF that it does not have any concrete outcomes.
However, others argue, this is not the case. There's a lot that comes out of the IGF. A lot of chairman's report, right from the beginning, in addition, you also have, that's later on the agenda. The best practice, other Dynamic Coalitions so there is a lot of concrete outcomes coming out of the IGF and also, while the IGF is not here to take decisions but they can shape decisions that are taken elsewhere and with that, I think I have already been long enough. Thank you for your attention.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, Markus. So, as Markus has said, the internet governance forum derives its mandate from paragraph 72 of the Tunis agenda where it says we are still United Nations Secretariat general in an open process to convene in 2006 in a meeting for new forum multistakeholder dialogue called for internet governance forum. Then you can look on our website. Oh, by the way. Do you have that link? I sent a document link. I think I'll ask Luis if he could please post the document link in the chat so people can follow.
So, this is the basis of the internet governance forum. So, in 2006, the Secretary General established the Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum to help him in implementing and supporting the IGF process. For the Secretariat, this includes organizing the annual meetings, both logistical and also with the MAG because that's the core of the, the core task of the MAG is the program and schedule of the IGF annual meetings.
And then, we also negotiate with the host country, host country agreements, set up the meetings, we support the intersessional activities, provide the platform, framework, that means there's the website, mailing list for MAG members who are traveling. We get the tickets, et cetera. I mean, for those ones who are eligible.
And we also facilitate connections between the various fora within and outside of the United Nations. And we get people connected as well. People throughout the year can contact the Secretariat if they need to be connected with some organization or some resource that they need. The main platform for communication is our website, but then we also have the various mailing lists, which, I think, every single new MAG member is on the mailing list. If any of you are not on the mailing list or would like to change the address that you are on the mailing list, please contact Luis and he'll help you out there. We also act as a conduit, communication between New York Secretary General and the stakeholders and we ensure that the UN rules and regulations apply while upholding the multistakeholder principles and values. And these multistakeholder principles and values are of course, openness, transparency, and inclusiveness.
That's what the Secretariat does. Now, I'm going to go over to the MAG terms of reference and if you click on to the the link, we do have a link there that says, MAG terms of reference which has, which was compiled between the Secretariat, the IGF MAG, it took a number of years, and also UN DESA. Oh, yes, I forgot. The institutional home of the IGF Secretariat is in UN DESA. That's the department of economic and social affairs in New York. This is the Secretary General assigned, the undersecretary General of UN DESA to be the home body institution of the IGF Secretariat. And they provide the other services and of course the connection to the Secretary General's office. Now I'm sure if you are following with me, I'm now looking at the Internet Governance Forum advisory group terms of reference. Now, I won't read it all, but I'll just highlight the important parts so as I said, the MAG was established by the Secretary General in 2006, and the full name of the MAG is the Secretary General's multistakeholder advisory group. And it's main purpose is to assist the Secretary General in convening the annual IGF meeting and in preparing the program and schedule of the IGF.
Now, that's the core. But, of course, there's also the intersessional activities, the MAG working groups, representing the IGF in various places about I'll get that done more specifically as I go down this document. Now, as I said, responsibilities, develop the details, program, and schedule for the IGF annual meetings, determine how to best plan and organize the annual IGF meeting, organize the main sessions and where necessary, participate and dedicate to working groups.
The selection of workshops, which is also very, very important and it is very time consuming. So, and I do hope and wish that every single MAG member participates in the selection of workshops.
Coordinating panels, providing support and guidance to panelists and moderators, support to the IGF intersessional work and as I said, promote the work of the IGF amongst all stakeholders. Now H for the individual MAG members' responsibilities, the MAG is, MAG members are expected to engage actively to work throughout the year. Now, we know that, you know, you've all got fulltime jobs so it does not necessarily mean that you have to attend every single meeting. We have, this year, we're going to have three face‑to‑face meetings and we usually have a virtual MAG meeting every second week and we have, as I said, the various working groups, et cetera. But, you don't have to participate in everything but we do still expect you to add least participate in some of them according to how much time you have.
Some people have more time than others. Some people are, you know, part of a job description requires them to b interact with the give and some people are doing it purely for other reasons so they may not have as much time to dedicate to and their work.
But, we still expect to know you and to know your views. And I know this is, it might be a little bit intimidating for first year MAG members but first year MAG members, especially those who are not too familiar with the IGF process, I think your views are actually one of the most critical. Looking at the way you do things with a new eye, with a fresh eye and you can just suggest. I mean, there's no such thing as a bad suggestion. I mean, we will just feel free, please, to suggest and you'll be surprised that it may be taken up, it may really make a difference. Now, one of the work individual responsibilities is to engage in our region with the community. But, I just want to bring in a very important point here is that your communication should be in line with the MAG we're not saying. So we're not saying whatever you say goes but it should be in line with MAG discussions, MAG agreements, and we do have some key messages when we get down to the working groups and communication outreach, we can be more specific there. So, it's very important in that way. And also, you must be very careful in what you say, especially if you're saying things in front of press, and then use how you frame the things you say because that may or may not be taken as to be representing the whole MAG which may or may not be the case.
We have to be very careful with the messages that we send out. I think Lynn can speak more to that after this.
Now, with procedures I mean, at the very beginning, we used to have closed MAG meetings. Now they're very open. We have got transcription. We still do use the Chatham House rule, which means that when we're discussing things outside of the MAG, we don't say that John Henderson said this and this and this and this. No, we can say, you know, there was a discussion and there were some opinions that said this, the other opinion it's that said that, and we finally agreed on this opinion. So, we're not really naming people and pointing fingers at people but this is how we work.
And we work in the rough consensus model. So, when we say rough consensus, it doesn't mean that every single body has to agree on us but there's the absence of loud disagreement. Because there is now this year, 52 MAG members and it's very difficult to get, for 52 people to agree on anything but we can have a rough consensus and that is up to the Chair to decide when a consensus can be reached, what consensus has been reached. And we should move on, we shouldn't try and decide what should be done because some people were distracted and they went out of the room for five minutes and went back and saw that it has been moved on.
We've got quite a lot of moving parts and we have to have quite a quick pace when we have our MAG meetings. So, we rely on the Chair to tell us when something has been debate and when a decision has been made, when a consensus decision has been made and when we move on.
Now, as you know, we have 52 MAG members this year from all sectors. That's government, private sector, media, civil society and the technical community.
Next year, we are going to try and keep it to 50 members. And we have approximately 40. In the past had been, these are past host countries which are given more or less continuing seats and they can speak to a country because they have a lot of expertise that they have garnered from hosting an IGF meeting and it's also one way to show appreciation for the commitment to the IGF.
Apart from the past host countries, we also have IG O who can attend. These IGOs could be, you know, other UN bodies or other international bodies that they can attend and we have the World Broadcast s Union as well. They also attend as basically they have the same powers as a MAG member and they can speak within the meetings. So, MAG members are appointed for a term of one year. Now, this term is usually for up to three years so you could expect to be renewed twice if you have participated in MAG meetings and in the MAG program. At times, you know, if you're a no‑show, then, yes, of course, we want someone who does participate but if you have made your best effort to participate you would generally be automatically renewed for another year. Don't need to reapply for the MAG members. We will just take your name and do that. If you want to resign from the MAG, we've had people that changed jobs or haven't had the time, you have to send a letter either to me or you can send Lynn a letter, an email stating your intention to step down. If you step down in the middle. Year, there will be no replacement for you. At the end of the cycle, if you step down then of course we will select another candidate from the stakeholder group. You cannot nominate somebody to be in your stead so the MAG seat is not transferable by you. MAG members do not receive any fee or any other remuneration from the United Nations. We do try and of course support people from LDC's and they can apply for funding. Now, this funding comes from the IGF Trust Fund which is next on the list. Now, the IGF Trust Fund is managed by DESA and there's a link in the input documents if you wanted to click that link if you're following with me.
We are, of course, funded by, it which means no money comes in, all the money from the IGF Trust Fund is put in there by organizations or companies or governments separately from the United Nations general Trust Fund so if we don't raise any money, with can't do anything. At the moment, we are not raising as much money to be fully operational. We do have the United Nations Trust Fund document and the current document we're using is United Nations Trust Fund document phase 3, now, that is the current document we're using as all of you know we had a renewal by the UN general assembly until 2025. So, this is the. Currently, the budget is making just under 1,000,005 had thousand, something like ‑‑ 1 million, 5,000, just enough to support the salary, our rooms and MAG support but the document, we have support for capacity building activities and so one of the key tasks for the MAG members is of course to help us raise money and find donors to donate to the IGF trust fund.
There is also a ‑‑ which we'll get to later.
Now, on the funding page, we have our past host countries and we've also got the donors to the Trust Fund and the donors list is basically in order of people who have donated the most to the IGF Trust Fund. So, the highest donor at the moment is the government of Finland, followed by the European commission and then the government of Switzerland. Then, I can go all the way down. P and then we also have in kind contributions. So, we have in kind contributions from UNOG for space and facilities, well, no longer space, but for facilities that they give us. ICANN has very graciously lent us transcription services for the face‑to‑face MAG meetings and we have Cisco, which does our WebEx meetings. I mean, this is all donation from Cisco for our remote participation.
CTI Brazil used to be a very strong donor. Not at the current moment, but we are very appreciative to CGI Brazil. They have donate funding for an extra staff member and et cetera. And of course, we have the ITU and the IGF SA. The ITU usually hosts one of Aramaic meetings, especially during the WSIS forum and they do not charge for that.
Now, I'll just go to the funding eligibility for MAG members and then I'll pause and see if anybody from the Secretariat or Lynn has got something to say because everybody is very quiet. So, for participating in funding. MAG members have funding, to be considered, you have to be a MAG member, you have to come from at least developing country or transitional economy. Unfortunately, people from develop countries are at the very bottom of the list and there's no funding to fund them. I know we've had a lot of debates about this but this is just the way that the Trust Fund is constructed. We cannot fund people from developed countries.
Now, the MAG member has to be in good standing. We need you to have completed all the forum forms and you have to have a health check and you have to have also completed all the forms from your previous meetings if you have been funding previously. And we give preference to those people who we have not funded before. So just to be fair. And we also are grateful to people who ask for partial funding, be it airfare, and they can take care of their own accommodation expenses or vice versa because that leaves more funding for us to fund other people. We also do fund individuals but, as I said, the first priority is to MAG members then to the individual funding so we've rarely had enough money to actually go to funding individuals because they have to have a role and also the same eligibility applies to the developing countries.
I'll just pause there to see if Lynn has anything to add to what I said because I've said quite a lot.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: No, I think Chengetai, that was very thorough. I can say a couple of sentences on messages given your earlier request. As Chengetai said, coms and outreach is a key responsibility of all MAG members. In particular, the past few MAGs have identified outreach to government or senior policy makers and the private sectors as two areas that are critically important to the IGF going forward. There are many resources on the IGF website. There's a frequently asked questions section which talks to the IGF. There's, of course, overview and background documents about the IGF, et cetera. I think the, you know, the easiest thing is to refer to those documents there, the, you know, the most auth or Tative in terms of how to represent the IGF and of course the priorities of the MAG at any point in time are seen through the themes and subthemes of the current MAG, as well as best practice forum, activities and coalitions and NRI so again, there's a lot of information one can draw from.
I think the other thing we're all quite careful of is not to act in a representative role. As Chengetai said, even for the Secretariat and for the IGF, we all tend to speak about the activities of the IGF. Of course the IGF being a bottom up community led activities. It's very hard for anyone in any individual to represent the entirety of the IGF community.
So, again, just briefly, there are a lot of really useful and helpful materials on the IGF website and if anyone finds anything missing or not clear, please let the IGF Secretariat and myself know. We're going to continually try and update those and make sure they're accessible as well and again, if there's any specific questions.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. And Eleanora, if you have any questions or anything else I may have missed?
>> ELEANORA MAZZUCCHI: Thanks, Chengetai. No, again, I think you were very thorough and covered everything.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you. Luis?
>> LUIS BOBO: Hi, thank you, Chengetai. No, I don't have anything to add. Simply that I'm here to help you in any technical needs. Technical focal point of the IGF Secretariat. You see I'm helping you here, for example, in the technical parts of this call. Anything during the year in the whole process technical I'm here to help you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. Thank you, Luis. Then, I'll hand it over to Lynn.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Chengetai. Chengetai asked me to say a few words on the IGF annual meetings and key activities for MAG members. And in the document link, which the Secretariat sent around, there's a link to something called an IGF program component document, which actually reflected the activities of the MAG in the 2016 and it was essentially the same for the 2017 IGF cycle. I'll also point out that there is another document which is out for community review that is based on that table but shows it more graphically. And that was created, was a result of some activities within the working group on multi‑year strategic work program led by some of the business communities specifically. So, if people have gone to that link, there's a couple of introductory comments which actually talk to the responsibilities of the MAG. And as Chengetai said earlier, the primary purpose of the MAG is to advise the Secretary General on the program and schedule of Internet Governance Forum meetings and activities. We're expected to use converted efforts to improve the IGF process and strength then all of the activities through the work of the MAG, certainly, but also very much through community consultations, outreach and stakeholders engagement. So, specifically, the MAG is responsible for developing. Last year, we put in an early call for issues which helped us further and provide additional input to the formal submission process. I think people mostly expect that will be continued this year but again, that's a decision for the incoming MAG.
Part of those responsibilities were also how to determine how best to plan and organize the annual IGF meetings. We tried to take some fairly, I think significant steps last year based on a lot of community input about the need to be a little more concise in the program, minimize redundancy in sessions, and there was also a request to reduce the number of parallel tracks.
And we didn't actually make a lot of progress on reducing the parallel tracks in 2018, but that was largely due to a very consolidated IGF. In fact, we had a three‑day IGF where previously, IGFs were four full days of the IGF plus a day zero. So, we felt that it was important to get as many topics in as we could in those three days while respecting the community desires for a more cohesive program. The MAG has very specific responsibilities for the call for workshops, selecting the workshops and facilitating the order to show cause of those workshops. The MAG is responsible for organizing main sessions.
The main sessions have traditionally kind of followed the main themes that have been identified through the call for workshop proposals and those, the difference between a main session and a workshop session is they tend to take place in a larger room and they are provided for in the 6UN languages. All of the sessions that take place at the IGF workshops and main sessions are transcribed and they have robust online participation mechanisms so there's no difference between a main session and a workshop session
That respect. Again, the main difference is the size of the room and translation. In addition, the MAG supports intersessional work. Specifically, the MAG will decide what, if any best practice forums should go forward for the coming year. We also need to decide on whether or not the MAG and the community, obviously, everything the MAG does depends very heavily on the community activities and support and I would like to make that really clear, often through the discussions.
The MAG also has been responsible for a major intersessional policy initiative. This past year, and in fact, for the four past years, it has been connected enabling the next billions. And the MAG will need to decide whether or not fifth phase of that is appropriate or whether or not there is another more appropriate or more immediate topic. We also provide support to the Dynamic Coalitions. Although, those are still primarily community‑led, across all the intersessional activities, we're trying to ensure that we've got a really robust sort of open and two‑way channel between those activities and the MAG.
Clearly, the annual meeting program is enriched by the activities of all the intersessional work. By that, I also include the NRIs. And it certainly informs the work of the global community and hopefully, we hope, equally, we hope that the discussions held at the annual meeting, the global IGF meeting enriches and supports and advances the intersessional activities. I'll save the discussion on the NRIs until the specific NRI session because that is a different relationship from the MAG to the NRIs there. It's an extremely important and central relationship. I think it's really deserving of sort of a wonderful discussion. The document that's included here is very thorough. It talks about the specific component of the global IGF and by that, we mean not only the annual meeting but the intersessional activities. There's a description. It talks roughly to what the session duration has been historically. And where any oversight or responsibility lies for those various component pieces. And then, again, there's a document which talks about the status in 2017 was largely the same in 2018.
And it also gives links to appropriate kind of foundational documents. I won't cover every one of the sessions there. I mean, it really is important that the MAG reads the document and understands the relative roles. I want to call out just one or two additional ones and that's open forums. On open forums, was an innovation some years ago and quite early on. Specifically, supported by the IGF Secretariat. Though the MAG is given advanced notice of the selection criteria and of the proposed list of accepted open forums and they are meant to be organized by governments, intergovernmental organizations or tree‑based international organizations or global organizations with international scope and presence. There are ways for those bodies to participate within the IGF, again, and supports the continuing desire for greater government, intergovernmental, and senior policy engagement activities of the IGF.
We have been working over the last few years to ensure that they aren't just one way briefings but, in fact, that they support the theme and subthemes of each year's IGF and that they follow a lot of the same workshop criteria, which is meant to engage the community and engage participants. So, that's been the traditional role for open forums. Again, all of these component pieces of the IGF will be further reviewed and further, you know, debated, if you will, within the context of the 2019 IGF. We've also focused on some additional formats to try and kind of enliven the IGF at one level and to increase engagement. That's a new session formats which is a lightning and conference format. We have a focus on new comers and we also have the day zero events. Which are basically events that are, you know, relevant to the internet governance space. They facilitate communities meeting ahead of the IGF and obviously, facilitate their engagement in the IGF.
And those are organized and approved by the Secretariat, again, with some sort of light oversight, if you will, from the MAG. Maybe at this point, if you just quickly look forward to 2019, the last few years, we've had two MAG meetings. Partly because of the compressed schedule, or largely because of the compressed schedule. This year, with the more timely announcement of the MAG, the Secretariat and I are looking to see if we can support and pull together a schedule that would support three MAG meetings.
The kind of working assumption at the moment, but everyone should wait until we get final notice from the Secretariat, the working assumption is that in the end of, at the end of January, there will be a first MAG meeting, which, I think should be focused on some of the more strategic and longer range components of the work of the MAG and the IGF community and the second and third meetings would, I think, focus more on advancing some of the specific pieces of work whether that's best practice forums or working groups or, you know, possibly even deeper engagement in day of the weeks and things. And of course, the workshop selection process and preparation for the annual meeting.
Let me see if there's ‑‑ but, again. We're working on a schedule for that with the Secretariat now and hope to get something out at least on the first series of meetings. A think we're targeting before the end of this week to do that. Let me see if there's anything, something flitted into my mind a moment ago but it flitted right back out quickly again. So, if I think of it, I'll come back later but otherwise, Chengetai, I think that's probably taken up enough time, given the remaining items. So, back to you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, Lynn. Then I will just quickly go over to Jutta who is going to tell us a bit about the Dynamic Coalitions.
>> JUTTA CROLL: Yes, thank you very much, Chengetai, for giving me the opportunity to explain a little bit what Dynamic Coalitions are. So, I do think Dynamic Coalitions started at the first IGF in Athens and many of them are still continuing to do their work at the moment. You may find on the list of 18 Dynamic Coalitions, some new founded in Paris only some weeks ago. Others that have about 13 or 14 years of work behind them. Dynamic Coalitions are a special format for the intersessional work at the IGF. It usually means that a group of people who have a common theme that they are working on from different perspectives and in their different functions and capacities. And once they come across a topic where they decided it's worst to bring this into internet governance, they can form a so‑called Dynamic Coalition. And it's in the name and in the title of this format that it's a special format that people can join Dynamic Coalitions with whatever background they have.
They can work with the Dynamic Coalition but over the years, I would say the whole process has become structured so we now have forms of ‑‑ and we usually produce papers during the course of the work. Between IGF and Dynamic Coalition also have started. Markus, correct me if I'm wrong R2 years ago with having a them attic main session on the work of the Dynamic Coalitions, more or less all of the Dynamic Coalitions have that contribution to this session. I do think it's too time consuming to go through all of the Dynamic Coalitions. You might find them listed on the internet governance website. They have a broad range of topics from, for example, to schools of internet governance to developing states and the internet. There is. There's also online state. There's a very broad range of technical topics, also more oriented, topics that are caught up by day of the weeks. This year, day of the weeks had set up a thematic main session that was related to the sustainable development goals so all Dynamic Coalitions firstly reviewed their own work and the work, the relationship of their work to the SDGs and then we had set up a very successful session which was well‑attended by participants on the SDGs and the Dynamic Coalitions. So, that's for all the moment, I think. Correct me if I've forgot anything. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, Jutta. And Dynamic Coalitions have to submit a yearly report to remain registered on the IGF website, they have to show that they have made some progress through the past year. I would like to call on Eleanora to tell us about the enterprise.
>> HUGH: Thanks, Chengetai. It's very nice to meet all of you here. I just wanted to add one small thing you said on DCs. Their main session this year was actually co‑organized with members of the MAG and we're very pleased to say that was a very successful collaboration. So, on to best practice forums, BPFs, I will try not to take up too much time. They were started in 2014 in response to the UN support for science and technology for developments. Working on improvements that called for the development of more tangible outputs to "Enhance the impact of the IGF on global internet governance and poms." BFFs are each dedicated to an internet governance issue that do just that. Produce tangible outputs on a yearly basis in the format of best practices or policy recommendations document. As Lynn mentioned earlier, the MAG, in fact, decides on these. Taking into account the wider IGF community. This discussion is important because it basically aims to assess, first of all, which BPF issues need continuity in the sense that the IGF can make a continuous and positive contribution to them.
Secondly, which issues have come it a natural closure through their BPF's work and third, whether there are new or overlooked issues to which the IGF can uniquely contribute. In some ways, the decision on the number of BPFs the MAG can approve per year is impacted by what resources the Secretariat can dedicate to them. With the exception of some Secretariat staff supporting individual BPFs in the past, consultants are actually recruited by the Secretariat to support each of the BPF's activities. This generally means the total number of BPFs shouldn't or really sometimes can't exceed three or four annually. Once BPFs are established or renewed, a team of usually two MAG members co‑facilitates each one, aligning the timeline of their activities, keeping them on task, providing institutional guidance, promoting their work and coordinating with these consultants in the background so in 2018, we had 4BPFs. One was on cybersecurity, which has been working continuously since 2016. One was on gender and access, also working continuously since 2015. One on internet of things, big data and artificial intelligence, which was new last year and one on local content which continued from 2017. But, interestingly, there was also a one ‑‑ year local content BPF in 2014 when BPFs first started of
So, for 2019, it will be up to all of you and your MAG colleagues to decide what BPFs the IGF should carry forward. In the meantime, you should definitely read and familiarize yourselves with the existing outputs and information in the BPF pages on the IGF website. There are also many MAG members with experience facilitating or contributing to BPFs who can guide you or giver you more information. In fact, there are many on the call here who should add to or amend anything I've said. And of course, if there are specific questions, the Secretariat or some of the MAG members I'm sure would be happy to answer them. So, I will stop here because I think I've given a, yeah, a pretty thorough overview.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, Eleanora. Next, Anja is going to tell us, our national and regional focal points is going to tell us a little bit about the national and regional youth IGF initiatives. Anja, please.
>> ANJA GENGO: Well, thank you very much. I hope you can hear me clearly. I firstly would like to greet all the MAG member. I'm looking forward to working with you throughout the next year. So, as Chengetai said, I will say a few words about regional, subregional and youth IGFs or as we refer to them in short, the NRIs. How, in a pragmatic kind of scene, the work is conducted. So, from, if we maybe start from the very beginning, you've seen it at the beginning of our call, certain references to the Tunis agenda that established Internet Governance Forum from which the IGF stems its mandate and if you read carefully, the relevant paragraph, 72, then you will see that there is no dedicated call to the communities to organize things on a national or regional levels. However, they do exist. They actually started to be organized organically when the community can realized that just one global forum cannot encompass all the issues that the technology do bring to our lives in general and of course some of the communities decided to establish their own multistakeholder and bottom up processes to organize an IGF for their respective communities so that means that certain NRIs, whether they're national, regional, are probably old as the global IGF itself. Like the Carribbean IGF, for instance, predated the IGF itself. Today, we have 112 national, regional, subregional and youth IGFs. Basically, the whole concept, the nature of collaboration between the Secretariat and NRIs is based on the NRIs entrusting the IGF Secretariat as a neutral space to have that role of recognizing the information at the IGFs.
So, the whole recognition process dates back in 2011 when the NRIs entrusted the IGF secretaries to whether the principles and procedures that are specific for the IGF are respected on a level of ‑‑ and whether those formations can be called the IGFs. So, in short, I'm just going to say, what are the core principles and characteristics that the NRI agreed to follow. Their firstly multistakeholder, which means that all NRIs, regardless of the level they're organized at are organized by the multistakeholder organizing committees. Those committees are composed of members coming from, at minimum, three different stakeholder groups as per the IGF's classification of stakeholder groups.
But, usually, all of the NRIs do tend to have all four stakeholder groups involved in their processes. The organization of the annual meeting is completely bottom up which means that the whole procedures for that meeting is developed by the multistakeholder organizing committee consulting and asking the community in an open and fully inclusive and transparent process, what are the priorities for their communities to discuss during that are annual meeting and in that sense, all NRIs are noncommercial. These core principles two years ago are finally reflected in a unique document, called the NRIs toolkit. It's developed by all NRIs. It is still the only document that's been translated to all six languages by the communities and on the IGF website, you can see all those versions on all six slide.
If we look a bit at the current records of the NRIs as I said at the beginning, we do have 112 recognized. The national IGF, there are 17 regional and subregional IGFs. Fourteen IGFs that are also recognize and we do have 14 youth IGFs, sorry, and we do have six IGFs that are still in formation and hopefully, in a couple months we will have them joining the network. Last year, 75 IGFs were hosted around the world and I will refer later on a website. When it comes to their individual work, they're of course completely independent and autonomous when it comes about organizing their own processes but the NRIs did agree that aside of the fact that they will entrust the Secretariat to run this commission process and with that, maybe distinguished between those that are really adhering to these criteria that I mentioned in the beginning and those maybe that are just organizing the kinds of forums for internet public policy. They're also working jointly together.
And in that sense, I'll just refer that every month through the NRI's mailing list that is completely open to everyone, the NRIs have the monthly virtual meeting where we plan in a bottom up manner, what are we going to focus on for the next IGF cycle and how are we going to achieve those objectives. So, just to illustrate, for example, for 2018, for the Paris meeting, the NRI requested from the MAG to organize the main session. They also, in a bottom up manner, agreed that the session will be focused on the evolution of internet governance with a specific focus on the multistakeholder approach.
The Chair mentioned the so‑called NRI's collaborative sessions. These are specific workshop‑like sessions that were focused on, where they're to organize them and of course we also organized a very big open work meeting between, take stock of all the NRIs to take stock and of course. I will share with you later which links. I will understand many of you are directly affiliate and I will share a couple of slides just so you see maybe the global map of the NRIs and a very nice balanced global spread of the NRIs existing in the world and I'll link to subscribe to the NRI's mailing list so that would be in short and I am here if you have any questions. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you very much, Anja. For our last item before the general question and answer, MAG working groups. Lynn, please?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Thank you, Chengetai. Before I start that, there was, I recalled what I had forgotten momentarily, that was to say that at each one of our physical MAG meetings, there are three‑day MAG meetings. The first is in open consultation community meeting and in that meeting, we encourage all MAG members, in fact, to listen to the community.
There are occasionally MAG members who's will speak in another, with another hat that they have on but it really is a full day dedicated to the community and partners to bring forward items and issue asks that they feel are pertinent to the IGF activities and then the second and the third day are the more formal MAG meetings. So, just quickly on the MAG working groups, it is up to the MAG to determine which working groups should go forward and to approve their charter. In 2018, we had five working groups. They're all up on the website. Their charters are up there. Meeting summaries from the meeting working group as well. Just quickly, there was a working group on prep and evaluation which focused on improvements to the workshop selection process. There was a working group on communications and outreach. A working group on IGF improvements. They looked at all of the improvements. The taking stock activities from all the IGF activities. Suggestions open consultations.
DESA retreat, et cetera. And they've done an extremely thorough job of capturing all the suggestions from the last 13 years. Evaluating them in level of completeness. Also, if they were not yet complete. Largely administrative roles and responsibilities, reviewing various materials, shaping the website a little bit differently and again, providing some additional talking points and resource documents. The next phase of that, which we certainly hope would be approved, would be to focus on smallish number of prioritized possible donors, specifically to address the funding shortfall Chengetai mentioned earlier and then the fifth working group was a working group on multiyear strategic working group which was intended to take a longer look at some multiyear activities that the IGF might undertake so we weren't kind of suffering from a set and reset mentality every year.
Those are just brief introductions. As I said, the charters and meeting summaries are posted on the website. When we begin advancing preparations for this year, there will be a call for suggestions for working groups and the MAG will take that up, I expect in their first meeting in January. And briefly, as I said earlier, we have had a major policy initiative that was started four years ago with connecting and enabling the next billions and specifically that was to work to deliver some more concrete outputs very similar to the motivation that drove the best practice forums as well. And the MAG will need to determine whether or not a fifth phase of that is appropriate or whether or not there is a new initiative that's better placed to move forward. And key issues for engagement. We mentioned earlier of course that governments and senior policy makers in private sector were two critical areas. I also think we could do more with a number of partnering organizations. IGOs and otherwise that have some very relevant activities moving forward and that probably speaks to sort of similar kind of structural components for how we might interface and interact with them. I will stop there. Again, I think that covered the critical point and we really did want to leave time for comments or questions from MAG members.
So, thank you, Chengetai and back to you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: All right. Thank you, Lynn. I think we've covered communications and outreach so as Lynn said, I think the most important thing is to hear back from you to see if you have any questions and we'll try and answer them right now. So, the floor is open.
>> RAJESH CHHARIA: Good evening, Chengetai. Rajesh Chharia from India. Lynn has explained very well about the working group. How to nominate ourselves to that working group because this is my first MAG?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Oh, that's very easy. You just join the working group mailing list. I will ask Luis to put in the links to the chat and we can also send you specifically, but, yes, you just join the mailing list.
>> RAJESH CHHARIA: When I'm getting the mail on the working group on the online child and women abuse and I'm very keen on working on this subject. I am very active into this subject and I want to give my total inputs on this.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Chengetai, can I come in just for a moment?
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes, please.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Just to say that again, each year the MAG has to reach harder, the working groups. We're hoping to, and I don't know if we have a date scheduled, to have one more meeting before the end of this year where we would actually review the kind of current status of those MAG working groups as well as the CENB and possibly even some of those other areas so that the incoming MAG has an early view as to the status of those working groups and can have a preliminary discussion on which ones might continue and also at that point, I think we could possibly begin entertaining suggestions for new working groups.
But, at this point right now, there are no formally constituted 2019 MAG working groups. And maybe one other quick point is to say that the MAG working groups have traditionally been open to all community participants. We ask that they be co‑facilitated by MAG members but that they are open to broad community participation.
>> RAJESH CHHARIA: Thank you, Lynn, for giving the full detail and I will be much more interested in joining this group. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Okay. I think the next person on the speaking queue is Ben Wallis.
>> BEN WALLIS: Hello. Thank you, Chengetai. I won't take much time because obviously I'm an existing MAG member. I just wanted to say as someone who has just finished their first year to anyone who is new, don't think you just have to sit back and watch your first year and see how it works. I think as you said, Chengetai, at the start, there's a lot of, views are welcome from people with new perspectives. And also, I took on various tasks, roles, co‑convening a best practice forum. There's plenty of opportunity as a first‑year MAG member to really participate and contribute and make an impact so that was the message I just wanted to share. Thanks.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Thank you, Ben and the next person in the speaking queue is Jutta.
>> JUTTA CROLL: Yes, Chengetai. Thanks a lot for giving me the floor again. I just wanted to answer to Rajesh' request on the working groups that also the Dynamic Coalitions are place where these topics that you're addressing are dealt with. And there are two of them. One is the Dynamic Coalition on gender and internet governance and other is the Dynamic Coalition on child online safety and we are more than welcome to work with others in these Dynamic Coalitions. Thank you.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: All right. Thank you, Jutta. Any questions from new MAG members? Incoming MAG members? Three count. No burning questions?
Okay. Well, if there aren't any burning questions, or any questions at all, and if you think about any questions later on, please, just feel free to reach out to any of us. Myself, anybody in the Secretariat, all of them directly. That's fine and we will respond to.
I will, Lynn, do you want to say something?
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: No, I mean, I think that was excellent, Chengetai. We have, in past years, because we know that this is just a tremendous amount of information that's been downloaded. If people feel that a second meeting would be helpful at some point in the future to go over some of these items into bit more detail, again, don't hesitate to ask. We can either do that on an individual basis or do it with, you know, a subset of MAG members as well. So, it's in everyone's best interest to make sure people sort of understand their role and are fully prepared to participate and engage. Everything the IGF does is on the basis of efforts from the community or the MAG. So, as Ben said, full participation is excellent and there were many, many useful contributions from first year MAG members this past year.
In fact, we could not have made the progress we made on several of the key working groups without the specific participation from first‑year MAG members so I really want to encourage everybody to jump in and again, we're all here because we care about internet governance and the difference the internet makes in people's lives. I think you'll find that MAG members, secretaries, myself. As Marilyn said, once a MAG member, always a MAG member so please don't hesitate to jump in or send a request.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: All right. Thank you very much, Lynn. I think with that, we will close the meeting and if there's somebody who has just thought of something to say. It also seems that the first MAG meeting will happen on those dates, so we'll send out a message shortly because there hasn't been any loud outcry that those were inconvenient dates so we'll stick to those dates and we'll send a message out either tomorrow, on first of all, the funding issue and just making an announcement of the meetings so people could plan the schedules.
Thank you very much again.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Chengetai, sorry, one quick question. Did we set up the second virtual meeting to review the status? We were looking at that in sort of the third week, I think, of December, possibly. I don't know if we have a date. We can maybe take that offline.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Yes Okay. I can call you straight after this.
>> LYNN ST. AMOUR: Okay. Although we both have another call in ten minutes.
>> CHENGETAI MASANGO: Ah. Okay. (laughter). Okay. All right. Yes, Okay. All right. Thank you very much and we'll see you online and again, please do not hesitate to reach out to any of us if you have any questions. Thank you for your time.