[DC-Trade] Changes to the Open Digital Trade Network and IGF Dynamic Coalition on Trade and the Internet

[William Drake]

Hi

Thanks Jeremy, this seems sensible enough to me.

Best

Bill

> On Jan 6, 2018, at 01:49, Jeremy Malcolm <jmalcolm at eff.org> wrote:
> 
> This update goes out both to the IGF Dynamic Coalition (DC) on Trade and the Internet, and also to the Open Digital Trade Network (ODTN); apologies if you receive it twice. If you have recently returned from vacation, I hope that it went well and look forward to a productive new year of collaboration with you. For those who attended the DC's inaugural meeting at the IGF, here is a draft report of that meeting <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DxVPV54NXYlV7PJkDPMgmmv-XHKzko_mgmHFVPrkBXI/edit#> for your review and comment.
> 
> During 2016 and 2017, EFF would sent out a weekly update to member of the ODTN, with hyperlinks to working items being tracked in our online platform at opendigital.trade <https://opendigital.trade/>. Although I have received feedback that the email update itself has been useful, it has been increasingly obvious that the platform—which contains productivity tools for both the ODTN and the DC (a task tracker, wiki, calendar, document repository, contact database, and forums) is not really being used at all.
> 
> Additionally, the separation of the ODTN and the DC has created some redundancy and confusion. When we originally resolved to form a DC, it was decided not to simply to roll the ODTN into it, because the requirement that DCs have open membership and public mailing lists did not work for some members. Hence we retained the ODTN as a private and invitation-only strategy group that would continue alongside the DC (here is an article <https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/contested-meanings-inclusiveness-accountability-and-transparency-trade> in which I unpack this tension around publicness and the need for two separate groups).
> 
> So for 2018 and going forward we will be experimenting with some changes. The short version is that if you are an ODTN member, you would become a DC member also and be added to its low-volume mailing list, which will receive a new newsletter in place of the task-tracker based weekly updates. The DC will thereby become the new umbrella structure for the ODTN's projects and any other related projects coordinated by DC members.
> 
> The long version is as follows:
> The weekly update emails will be replaced with a periodic newsletter which will go out to DC members, and will no longer be based directly on activities in the task tracker of the online platform.
> Instead of managing a multiplicity of tasks through our online platform, we will focus on a few broader key projects under the aegis of the IGF Dynamic Coalition, each independently led by its own coordinator. The ODTN project on transparency and participation will become one of these, and its members will thereby become DC members also.
> Projects led by DC members can have closed memberships and private mailing lists, but to fulfill the IGF's rules the coordinator will be responsible for summarizing discussions back to the main DC mailing list and in the DC's annual report periodically.
> The task tracker, calendar and other productivity tools will become for the project coordinator's use only (though they can grant access to others). The opendigital.trade website will be revamped to become more of a public-facing resource, highlighting our outputs, projects and writings.
> This is aimed at simplifying and making our collaboration more effective in 2018, by reducing some of the the duplication of maintaining two separate groups, while continuing to enable people to work on specific projects with a chosen group of collaborators. If you have any comments before the suggested changes go into effect, please share them. Otherwise, ODTN members will be added to the DC mailing list and will receive their first newsletter of 2018 in the next couple of weeks.
> 
> -- 
> Jeremy Malcolm
> Senior Global Policy Analyst
> Electronic Frontier Foundation
> https://eff.org <https://eff.org/>
> jmalcolm at eff.org <mailto:jmalcolm at eff.org>
> 
> Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161
> 
> :: Defending Your Rights in the Digital World ::
> 
> Public key: https://www.eff.org/files/2016/11/27/key_jmalcolm.txt <https://www.eff.org/files/2016/11/27/key_jmalcolm.txt>
> PGP fingerprint: 75D2 4C0D 35EA EA2F 8CA8 8F79 4911 EC4A EDDF 1122
> _______________________________________________
> DC-Trade mailing list
> DC-Trade at opendigital.trade
> http://opendigital.trade/mailman/listinfo/dc-trade


***********************************************
William J. Drake
International Fellow & Lecturer
  Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ
  University of Zurich, Switzerland
william.drake at uzh.ch (direct), wjdrake at gmail.com (lists),
  www.williamdrake.org
************************************************

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.eff.org/pipermail/dc-trade/attachments/20180106/5b5455d1/attachment.html>