This roundtable, will discuss whether and how a tested tool in democratic process – “the deliberative polling method” - can be applied to complex and highly contested Internet governance challenges. Our goal is to facilitate implementation of Internet governance principles, as described in the NETmundial outcome document, by presenting results from two pilot Deliberative Polls (DP) on Internet governance held just prior to the 2015 IGF. The DP is meant to complement multistakeholder (Internet) governance principles and processes. We will record and analyze the positions of two stratified representative samples of IGF participants before and after they spend several hours reviewing and discussing balanced briefing materials about Internet governance themes. We will report the results of two pilot DPs: face-to-face and online which will be shorter in the duration of deliberation than we plan for future events.
Many of the principles identified at NETmundial pose tradeoffs and challenges when examined through a global policy lens. We plan deliberations on such questions as: What are the roles and responsibilities of international organizations, national governments and the private sector in protecting and respecting human rights in the digital realm? A particular focus will be on Access—how to promote the world’s next billion users.
The panel will draw out concrete policy implications as well as insights about Internet governance process principles, while aggregating the views of a diverse, inclusive, representative sample of IGF participants.
