Skeptics remind us that non-commercial users are the consumers of Internet rules, they can never participate as equals in the processes that create those rules. They also argue that multistakeholder governance is a hoax, a nice way of making non-commercial users feel they are a valued part of the process, while the decisions that matter are actually made by a powerful few. But is that so? This session will discuss where and how non-commercial Internet users have been able to participate in Internet policymaking as equals with much more powerful stakeholders and have been able to make decisions. The successful cases we look at will include: the non-commercial users constituency (NCUC) work in policy development at ICANN, efforts at the IETF, and decisionmaking in ccTLDs.
This workshop is not about the participation of non-commercial users in certain processes, it is rather about what non-commercial users have achieved and what this tells us about the collaboration between stakeholders and successes of the multistakeholder approach.
In the months leading up to the IGF in December, we will crowd source success stories and invite many to tell us how they have been involved with multistakeholder process. Other multi-stakeholders involved in these specific cases will also be invited to give their view of the how the multistakeholder discussions and outcomes developed, with collective learning about the experience.The outcome of the workshop might contradict with the general conception that noncommercial users cannot engage with decision-making at Internet governance organizations.
Speakers provisionally confirmed:
Corinne Cath
Rachel Pollack
Tatiana Tropina, Max-Planck Institute
Farzaneh Badii, Internet Governance Project
Giovanni Seppia, Eurid
