[discuss] /1net Steering/Coordination Commitee

[S Moonesamy]

Hi Jeremy,
At 19:17 20-12-2013, Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
>In my opinion this is the source of a lot of the friction between 
>the technical community and the other stakeholder groups.  Few 
>governments work on mailing lists.  People whose culture places a 
>high priority on the avoidance of interpersonal conflict don't work 
>on mailing lists.  People who don't speak English don't work on 
>English language mailing lists.  People without a technical 
>background, but who have important insights from other disciplines 
>to contribute to technical discussions, do not work on technical 
>mailing lists.  People who don't know that a mailing list exists or 
>that participation on it is important to their interests don't work 
>on mailing lists.  That's a lot of people!

In my opinion the above are valid concerns.  I don't have an answer 
to the above concerns.  In my opinion, trying to force the ways of a 
group on other groups does not work well.  It can be, as mentioned 
above, a source of friction.  That friction drives people away.

>So, having a mailing list that is open is not adequate to ensure the 
>inclusiveness of a process, or that any concern that hasn't been 
>voiced on that list are "not an important concern".  To do that, 
>much more proactive outreach and capacity building is needed.  This 
>takes time and expense.  One of the most important roles of 
>organised civil society is to seek to represent (in a loose sense) 
>the perspectives of those who are unable to participate directly, 
>but we are chronically underfunded and understaffed and we struggle 
>to fulfil this responsibility.  Speaking personally, I can't count 
>on my fingers the number of technical committees that I think are 
>important, where consumers are not represented, and where my 
>organisation doesn't have the resources to represent them.

I am not sure whether I am part of civil society or not.  I would not 
argue that an open mailing list is inclusive.  I prefer to look at it 
this way: is it possible to hear any concern that has not been voiced 
out?  I do not think so.  I may be wrong.  If I have an important 
concern, would I be able to discuss about it personally in the venue 
where the decision is being taken?  That depends on the barriers to 
get to the venue.  If I have an important concern, would my 
representative (assuming I have one) discuss about it on my 
behalf?  I doubt that as the representative might have some other 
concern which is more important than mine.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy