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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Hello all. We have
been having a very interesting discussion about civil society
participation in internet governance via ICANN's structures and
it's been a lot of bad news. And I won't argue with the evidence
that says the system is rigged against civil society success.
But that's pretty old news. When have citizens NOT had to fight
against powerful interests for their fair share of the pie. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">The thing is, we have
more influence than we think. We can band together. We have a
lot of expertise among us, great ideas and wide networks. We
have an organization, we don't need to create another one. And
TC, as a group, is pretty close to the mythical "end users" the
multistakeholder system is so desperately wanting to connect
with. A few of our member organizations, Vancouver Community Network
& Ottawa Freenet for example, are composed of thousands of
end users. Believe it or not, that, by itself, is quite
powerful. We do have a right to speak in both national and
international fora and I never feel like I am standing alone -
although I often wish I could have more evidence to wave around.
We may not have any money, but we do have resources that are
hard to buy. So what can we do with that?</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">We probably can't turn
ICANN around .. at least not in the short term. But we can do
education and advocacy -- we can collect data, take positions, </font><font
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><font face="Times New
Roman, Times, serif">speak to government reps, participate in
events, build up knowledge about internet governance in our
own community, support each other, and do a lot more sharing
than we have been doing lately to fortify our positions. </font></font><font
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><font face="Times New
Roman, Times, serif"><font face="Times New Roman, Times,
serif">TC getting involved with larger projects like ICANN
does, in the end, boost our position at home, even if we
don't manage to change the world on our tour of duty. </font>
</font></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Just a couple of
upcoming meetings to keep on your radar. There will be a
Canadian Internet Forum in either Ottawa or Toronto (Toronto
seems likely) in late February as well as an ICANN meeting in
Montreal next October. There will be lots of ways to participate.
Maybe we can find ways to get more of our community to those
meetings -- both in person and virtually. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Marita<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br>
</font></p>
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