February 2013 Blog Posts (13)

Nobody said life in the cloud would be simple. We know of its benefits, such as high availability, flexibility and cost savings, but cloud computing brings with it several flats that can become real headaches. The adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) can signifar simplified management and cost savings but some pros warn potential customers to know what else is in addition to the benefits.…

Dear Diplo people

*Call for nominees from civil society to join the CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation*

I have been asked by Mr. Miguel Palomino de la Gala, Chairperson of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) to act as the focal point for gathering nominations for the 5 civil society positions on the CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation. Please pass this invitation around to other civil society organisations or networks you work…

Multi-stakeholder governance models are based on a dialectic exercise involving natural and legal persons that might be affected by the adoption of a specific norm or policy. The association of different stakeholders in a collaborative governance process is indeed aimed at fostering a better-advised decision-making process, based on the negotiation of consensual solutions.



Multi-stakeholder models are usually aimed at organising cooperative processes amongst a plurality of…

Please find below a call for papers for the next GigaNet Regional Workshop, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 17-18 May 2013 on:



 "The Governance of the Internet: Intergovernmentalism, Multistakeholderism and Networks".



The two-day event will include multistakeholder roundtables and academic presentations. Due to the short timespan,…

As Diedre reminded in her post, next week in Paris a WSIS+10 review meeting by UNESCO will take place.

But besides, the Open Consultations and the MAG meeting about the forthcoming IGF meeting in Indonesia later this year. The OC and MAG will discuss the topics and formats of the IGF2013 meeting, as well as all other…

Just a reminder for those who may not have noticed that it is possible to register as a remote participant (if like me you're thousands of miles away) for the various meetings coming up in Paris - WSIS + 10, IGF planning and the MAG - over the next couple of weeks.

The deadline is tomorrow, 20th February, so you still have time.

It's a way of demonstrating how much we value the opportunity for remote participation, and how many remote participants there are.

And…

Hi everyone,

I am encouraging members to respond to the call for nominations for choosing Internet Governance Caucus (IGC) nominees for the Commission on Science and Technology for Development Working Group on enhanced cooperation (CSTD WG-EC).

I know some of you may qualify. Please click here  and see attached file for details. Deadline is 22-Feb-2013.

When studying computer and collaborative education back then in high school, we used to mention a number of advantages and benefits of the Internet but there was this advantage that, I come to see today, we never used to mention. I am not sure whether the Internet was not yet developed enough to be considered as a means for online dating or we were not mature enough to be given that…

Before it gets cold …

I just attended the Diplo webinar Social Media and Diplomacy - the new normal. I’m interested to hear other people’s ideas on two of the issues that came up.

The first is that the speaker, Pete Cranston, suggested that the digital divide is being obliterated – or at least that is my understanding of what was said. While that may be true of the “elite” – his term – and so of the lateral divide, it seems to me that the divide still exists, and may be getting…

The Internet has no doubt become the largest community on planet earth. It is also the fastest growing community. By community in this context it means a nation whose citizens has something in common that bonds them together. The language of the Internet has unofficially come to be English. This may be due to the fact that the initial Internet citizens were from…

In his article “The Bane of “Consultants” on African Telcos fortunes”, Tom Makau states that investors have made a big mistake by formulating a single strategy for “Africa” assuming there exists a homogenous economic entity called the “African market”.  The African continent as far as geo-political boundaries, economic zoning has widely varying tax policies and regulatory…