[discuss] Governmental participation (Was: Problem definition 1, v5)

[S Moonesamy]

Hi Sala,

First of all, thanks for the message and the figures which were provided.

At 19:57 24-01-2014, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro wrote:
>GAC Penetration Rate within ICANN as at December 31,2013
>If we compare the list of countries and territories that have had 
>their ccTLD assigned by IANA and identify those that participate in 
>GAC meetings within ICANN, we will see that the penetration rates 
>are as follows:
>Asian Australasian Pacific Region - 63%
>African Region -56%
>Latin American Caribbean Region - 39%
>North American Region - 25%
>European Region - 46%
>[Based on numbers on the GAC website]
>
>However the GAC website does not record attendance per meeting to 
>enable a count of participation.

As a general comment, attendance is not the same as participation.

>It would also be interesting to see "level" and "extent" of 
>participation of various Governments in all key Internet 
>Organisations. This should include entities like the RIRs, IETF etc.

Please note that I neither represent the IETF, nor am I paid to lobby 
on behalf of the IETF.  There is a report about IETF (individual) 
attendance at 
http://iaoc.ietf.org/documents/IAOC-Report-IETF88-v6a.pdf  That could 
be explained by pointing out that the IETF standardization venue is 
not a policy forum.  Juliao Braga provided some numbers about 
attendance (see 
http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ietf/current/msg79541.html ).

The attendance figures for government representatives is, in general, 
very low.  There may be some topics which would be relevant to some 
regulators, e.g. White Spaces.  It is unlikely that the level or 
extent of government participation would increase in the short term.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy