IGF 2018 WS #452 Community governance in an age of platform responsibility
Format:
Round Table - 60 Min
Theme:
Human Rights, Gender & Youth
Subtheme:
DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP
Organizer 1:
Jorge Vargas
, Wikimedia Foundation
Organizer 2:
Anna Mazgal
, Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU
Speaker 1:
Juliet Nanfuka
, Civil Society, African Group
Speaker 2:
Tiago Peixoto
, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 3:
Jochai Ben-Avie
, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4:
Rachel Pollack Ichou
, Intergovernmental Organization, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Relevance:
One premise of the Internet Governance Forum and other forums of regulation of digital communication is that stakeholder groups collaboratively shape the rules under which the internet functions. Under multistakeholder formats, however, one important group does not have a seat at the table and consequently is not heard: individual internet users who actively participate in the development and governance of online communities. These communities are large, engaged, and serve important functions for digital citizenship, cultural participation, and access to knowledge for many people around the world. The governance models for these communities are closely related to core principles of internet architecture and aligned with important democratic values. The issue of community governance is relevant to the Internet Governance Forum because, in a networked society, it is important to leave room for internet users’ ability to govern through distributed and democratic decision-making processes. Such participatory governance models allow individuals to engage as digital citizens for the greater common good of the communities they inhabit, not only in their physical world but also online.
Session Content:
This proposed roundtable will explore participation in community governance as an important form of digital citizenship in the context of internet regulation. In times when policymakers are increasingly seeking to increase internet platforms’ liability for online content, thereby centralizing editorial functions and gatekeeping, laws and policies for digital communication need to leave room for individuals to participate in effective self-regulation, collaboration, and good faith moderation of online content. Experts from a diversity of stakeholder groups will discuss questions about effective and scalable community self-governance, such as: What are the communities that engage in self-governance online? What conditions enable this self-governance? What functions are best fulfilled by communities?
Interventions:
- Juliet Nanfuka is a Research and Communications Officer for the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA). She studies how information moves across digital platforms and conducts policy analysis with a focus on African participation in policymaking. Juliet’s expertise will shine a light on community governance in a context where the cost of connectivity and a lack of access to locally relevant knowledge are challenges for large parts of the population. - Ms Xianhong Hu is the program specialist at the Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, Communication and Information Sector of UNESCO's Headquarter in Paris. She works in the areas of freedom of expression online and offline, Internet privacy, media development, and Internet governance and was involved in developing UNESCO Internet Universality framework. Xianhong will provide valuable insights on community governance from the perspective of an international organization that focuses on building peace through intellectual and moral solidarity among humans. - Jochai Ben Avie is a Senior Global Policy Manager at Mozilla, and a former Policy Director at Access Now. He develops Mozilla’s policy positions and oversees the company’s grantmaking program for open source development. Jochai works to empower the Mozilla community in public policy work. This roundtable will benefit from his expertise and knowledge of a global, distributed, and tech-savvy community that collaborates to improve open source products. - Abby Vollmer is a Senior Policy Manager at GitHub, the world's largest software development platform. Abby's work focuses on developing GitHub's policy positions and advocacy strategies, mobilizing developers, and engaging with policymakers to support policy outcomes that empower developers and shape the future of software. At this session, Abby will draw from her expertise in human rights law and highlight community-led moderation of open source projects on GitHub as a model for community governance.
Diversity:
The speakers represent a diverse set of perspectives including civil society, government and industry. The confirmed group of speakers and organizers is also diverse in terms of ethnicity, race, gender, national origin, location, and age. Community building and governance is a topic that necessarily must include discussion about how diverse and marginalized viewpoints can be heard. Our speakers will be able share their experience and expertise fostering inclusion in online communities with members representing a diverse array spanning age, race, ethnicity, gender, location, and internet fluency. Additionally, the roundtable format, with ample time allotted for audience and online questions, will ensure that diverse perspectives are being represented in the room not only by our speakers, but also by individual attendees.
Online Participation:
The organizers will use social media channels of their respective institutions to draw attention to the roundtable before the event, in order to better engage online participants in conversation. In part, we will tailor our communications toward reaching out to existing online communities, including the communities which the speakers and organizers represent. We will encourage participants to submit questions before the session, but will also direct participants to the appropriate IGF channels for online participation during the roundtable. After the roundtable, the organizers will present a report on the discussion on the Wikimedia blog, where it can be discussed by the larger community.
Discussion Facilitation:
We propose a 60 minute discussion, with 5 minutes reserved at the beginning and end for an introduction and wrap-up. The intervening 50 minute discussion will focus on 5 topics, with roughly ten minutes devoted to each. For each topic, the speakers will be asked to share their impressions on the topic briefly (1-2 minutes) and then discussion will be opened to the audience and online participants to ask questions of the panelists or make comments on the topic, with both in-person and online moderators assigning priority to questions as they are raised. The online participants will be given equal opportunity for input as on-site participants, both in providing questions and in providing comments. The roundtable format is most suitable for this discussion as it allows a back and forth between the speakers and the audience, both online and in-person, that encourages collaborative discussion on these topics.
Onsite Moderator:
Anna Mazgal
Online Moderator:
Jan Gerlach
Rapporteur:
Jorge Vargas
Agenda:
Introduction
(5 min)
Jan Gerlach, Wikimedia Foundation
The roundtable will start with a short introductory overview of Wikimedia communities as a prominent example of large, distributed online governance system and digital citizenship.
Discussion
(50 min):
The moderated discussion in a roundtable setting will explore various aspects of online community governance. Specifically, we will elicit insights about the following topics (10min each):
Governance models and mechanisms
Development of community policies (content/conduct)
Enforcement of policies
Conflict resolution/sanctions
Agency of users and cohorts
Conclusions and wrap-up
(5 min)
Anna Mazgal, Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU
Jan Gerlach, Wikimedia Foundation
Session Time:
Wednesday, 14 November, 2018 -
10:10
to
11:10
Room:
Salle VIII

