Dear all, I guess that many of you have not realised the devastating decision of the last extraordinary meeting of the United Nation's Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) on 6 December to create a Working Group on Improvements to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) with a membership made up *only of governments*! As you can see below, ISOC has joined the International Chamber of Commerce - Business Action to Support the Information Society, the Internet Governance Caucus, and many other Internet, business, and civil society organizations in sending a letter to the CSTD, asking them to retract their previous decision and to establish an appropriately constituted Working Group that ensures the full and active participation of governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and international organizations and forums. Therefore, I would like to urge all EURALO members to sign the ISOC letter on the future of the IGF - see http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=2710 Thanks and kind regards, Wolf Vladimir Radunovic wrote Fri, 10 Dec 2010 19:35:

Dear friends,

news coming from the UN on the future format of IGF are disturbing for many.

Below is the email from ISOC, including their initiative to collect support for the letter to UN CSTD.

Please read below, and join if you wish to.

Best!

Vlada

isoc-members-announce-bounces@elists.isoc.org sent: 10. decembar 2010 12:25

...

Dear Colleagues,

In an extraordinary meeting on 6 December the United Nation's Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) decided to create a Working Group on Improvements to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) (http://www.intgovforum.org/) with a membership made up only of governments.

We believe this decision sets back the model of multistakeholder cooperation under which the IGF was established, and contradicts the instructions given to the CSTD for the establishment of the Working Group

The Internet Society has joined the International Chamber of Commerce - Business Action to Support the Information Society, the Internet Governance Caucus, and many other Internet, business, and civil society organizations in sending a letter to the CSTD, asking them to retract their previous decision and to establish an appropriately constituted Working Group that ensures the full and active participation of governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and international organizations and forums.

Like the Internet, a multistakeholder approach has been at the core of the Internet Governance Forum's formation and success. We hope that Internet Society Chapters and Members, as well as other organizations, will join us in signing the letter.

You may read the full letter, and see the growing list of signatories, and indicated your own support here:

http://isoc.org/wp/newsletter/?p=2710

Sincerely,

Jon McNerney Chief Operating Officer Internet Society www.isoc.org _______________________________________________ To manage your ISOC subscriptions or unsubscribe, please log into the ISOC Member Portal: https://portal.isoc.org/ Then choose Interests & Subscriptions from the My Account menu.

comunica-ch phone +41 79 204 83 87 Skype: Wolf-Ludwig www.comunica-ch.net Digitale Allmend http://blog.allmend.ch - EURALO - ICANN's Regional At-Large Organisation http://euralo.org