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Governance Structure and Charter


Caribbean ICT Stakeholders Virtual Community (CIVIC)

Structure and Organization chart

Version adopted by members on January 17th 2003

An updated version of this document will be maintained
accessible o­nline at
http://www.dgroups.org/groups/icacaribbean
-> resources -> CIVIC organization documents and thematic working
groups.
1.  CIVIC Definition and Objectives

2.  CIVIC
membership
3.  Moderation
4.  Multilingual
support

5.  Facilitation
6.  Diversity
Facilitator
7.  Document
approval – representation – mandates - votes

8.  Tools
available for the CIVIC members
9.   Access
- public/private space
10. Thematic
working groups

11. Netiquette
rules or how to participate in virtual communities

1. CIVIC
Definition and Objectives:
The Caribbean ICT Virtual Community (CIVIC) is a permanent
virtual forum of Caribbean ICT stakeholders. It is a venue for sharing
information, holding discussions, networking and linking ideas, actors,
projects or initiatives o­n ICTs and development in the
Caribbean.  It also aims to contribute in the building of a common
vision/perspective o­n ICTs, and to promote a Caribbean strategy
and/or regional Caribbean-wide actions.

It initially gathered the participants of the Caribbean ICT
Roundtable held in the Barbados o­n October 28-30 2002, but it is
now open to all active Caribbean ICT stakeholders (see “CIVIC
membership” below).
The CIVIC is based upon an asynchronic, electronic
conferencing platform, the ICAribbean mailing list and its related web
tools (currently hosted o­n the Dgroup virtual platform).

It is a Caribbean managed and Caribbean owned virtual
community.
Initial support for its organization has provided by
Institute of Connectivity for the Americas (ICA).

 

2. CIVIC
membership
As agreed by the Barbados Roundtable, the CIVIC membership
is open to all Caribbean ICT stakeholders.  “Caribbean” is
understood as all the Caribbean islands/countries, including UK/
France/US/Dutch overseas territories, Belize, Guyana and Suriname, and
the coastal island of continental countries(*) .
However to subscribe, you are requested to complete (a) a
voluntary registration (currently Dgroup registration form) and (b)
send a self introduction message (sent to the moderator). Shortly after
membership confirmation it is required for the new member to post
his/her self introduction to the CIVIC as a whole. Membership requests
from candidates whose activities or professional interests are not at
all related to the Caribbean and ICTs will be declined with a standard
explanatory note.  (Please see the section o­n observer
membership below)

All individuals subscribed to the virtual conferencing
device/mailing list are considered full members of the CIVIC.
Membership is individual rather then institutional, but members
can/should indicate when they are presenting personal or institutional
views, statements, etc.
All members have equal voice in the discussions and decision
making process, equal access to all tools, documents, archives, etc,
and have to respect same community approved rules and procedures.

Members who repeatedly do not respect the commonly accepted
behavior in virtual communities, called “netiquette” (see below), will
have their subscription and membership cancelled with prior
notification.
Members can change by themselves their individual default
settings (ex: receiving digested messages instead of individual
messages). When leaving for vacations, or being unable to read messages
for a long period of time, it is recommended to changes the settings to
“read posts o­nly through the web interface”. Also, subscribed
members can change the email address to receive and post, their
password, their user profile, etc., and unsubscribe from the list.

Members are requested to provide and maintain a functional
email address. Emails that “bounce” (no longer existing) or present
errors for a long period of time will be deleted, and membership will
be lost.
 
 

CIVIC Members are expected to: 

Be active
participants who share information, ask questions, respond to requests,
share answers, approve or disapprove motions and proposal, follow the
collectively established discussion agenda, etc.

Maintain a
functional email address

Respect
the netiquette (see below) and the rules outlined in this document

Respect
the cultural, linguistic, political, sexual and religious diversity of
CIVIC constituency

Not use
the list for political, religious, or commercial propaganda

Observer membership: for interested parties who are not
direct Caribbean ICT stakeholders, for example donors and cooperation
agencies, can participate in debates and all discussions, and will be
expected to follow the same rules. To vote o­n a proposal or sign a
CIVIC document, explicit approval from the CIVIC will be requested (by
any member) for each decision making process.

 


3. Moderation

The mailing list is moderated, to maintain a “clean” and
safe info-environment and to keep a high the signal-to-noise ratio.
Also moderation may be technically necessary for formatting and
inserting translated versions of the posts.
 
 

The moderator role is to:

Assist,
redirect and process administrative requests (subscription,
unsubscription, setting changes, etc).

Approve
messages and/or requests from senders to reformat their message
(attachments, HTML or special encoding) before approving

Avoid the
circulation of email attachments, viruses, commercial advertising
(“spam,”), email chains and hoaxes, administrative requests, non
members submissions, etc.

Redirect/
reject unrelated and/or personal messages, for this, the moderator has
to ask the sender to whom the message was intended, and/or if he/she
still wants it to be posted to the main list

To avoid information overload, o­nly Caribbean-ICT
related posts/discussions will be accepted. Posts related to non
ICT/non Caribbean or global ICT issues will be accepted o­nly if
the sender relates it, in a short introduction note, to the Caribbean
or a group specific interest or o­ngoing discussion.  Personal
messages, “flames”, insults, disrespectful posts, o­ne to o­ne
discussions will nott be approved.
The acting moderator is by no means a censor, but the keeper
of a “healthy” working environment. Any doubt about it is to be
publicly discussed. All rejected messages are to be kept archived for
future reference.   If the CIVIC decides so, any of its
members can be included to receive moderation administrative mails and
monitor the moderator(s) work.

Initial moderators are:
Yacine Khelladi: yacine@yacine.net
Angelica Ospina: aospina@icamericas.net

(as of January 2003)


 

4. Multilingual
support
The CIVIC is open to all Caribbean countries. Postings,
messages, discussions and documents are accepted in all the Caribbean
languages. Acknowledging the language barrier for regional networking,
all reasonable efforts will be made to provide multilingual support as:

  • translation of documents,
  • multilingual web pages
  • automated translation of email messages for
    French/Spanish/English/Dutch

 


5. Facilitation

To help attain its objective, organize an agenda, guide the
o­ngoing discussions, and articulate and document the inputs the
virtual community list is facilitated.
The facilitator(s) is (are) mandated by the CIVIC with
defined goals and deliverables.

The facilitator is not necessary the same person as the
moderator.
Facilitator(s) could be volunteer or sponsored by the CIVIC
supporting partners.
Initial facilitator (January-March 2003) is Yacine Khelladi.


 


6. Diversity
Facilitator
Among the CIVIC members a specific facilitator is chosen and
mandated to:

  • Promote a balanced participation from all Caribbean
    cultural/linguistic sub regions in the main virtual community (CIVIC)
    and the thematic working groups (TWGs)
  • Ensure that concerns, views, and interests of all Caribbean
    cultural/linguistic sub regions are reflected in the CIVIC and TWG
    outputs
  • Promote actions that formalize collaboration and vision
    sharing among participants from different Caribbean cultural/linguistic
    sub regions

He/she will:

  • participate in the facilitators co-ordination group
  • observe all o­ngoing thematic discussions
  • propose and eventually implement, with the facilitators
    group and all the members, actions and mechanisms to have balanced
    participation
  • follow up and report to the CIVIC

 


7. Document
approval – representation – mandates - votes

  • CIVIC constituency approval is needed to:
  • state that a document, public position or action proposal,
    is from the CIVIC
  • authorize any of its members to represent the CIVIC in any
    event or meeting
  • define a mandate for working groups, commissions,
    negotiators, representatives, project or fund administrator, etc., to
    enter in any discussion, take any decision or work o­n its behalf
  • approve or modify any chart or organization document.

Any item for
decision should be submitted to the main CIVIC list, with a clear
subject line including <decision> or <approval request>.

At least five (5) working days should be reserved to receive
comments, disapprovals, amendments, alternative proposals, etc. This
delay should be respected each time a decision item is rewritten or
amended and resubmitted for approval.  Those who do not publicly
oppose or amend a decision item are considered approving it.

If there is no opposition, amendment or counter proposition
o­n a decision item, then it will be considered approved by
consensus.
If no consensus can be reached, a vote has to be organized
by the moderator. A mail message with <vote> in the subject line
should contain all voting instructions, options, references, etc. The
moderator can be helped by a volunteer member for vote scrutiny. 

In votes there is no quorum required.

 

8. Tools
available for the CIVIC members:
 

  • The mailing list: contribution and posting is allowed both
    by sending an email to < icacaribbean@dgroups.org> and through
    the web interface, logging in at http://www.dgroups.org/groups/icacaribbean/
  • The o­nline archive: the CIVIC memory is made up of all
    the messages that are archived and accessible to all list members
    through the group web page. The moderators have no right to alter,
    modify or delete archived messages.
  • The members web page: members may post and modify a short
    bio including their work, references, etc.
  • Resource page: documents, links and news can be posted by
    participants. Reorganization of a thematic structure for the references
    is needed
  • A specific web site may be designed in the next phase


 


9. Access -
public/private space – privacy rights
Posting and receiving messages, accessing CIVIC web site,
mail archives, resources, etc., is o­nly for registered members.
CIVIC membership request or subscription have to be approved
(technically by the moderator according to the membership rules above)

Although what is posted in the CIVIC can be considered
public, it is preferred, but not madatory, to ask permission to forward
any email, partially or totally, to non list member(s).
List owner(s) and moderator(s) cannot erase or modify
members archived posts, profile data or posting history without express
permission of the concerned members.

No o­ne is authorized to use the members list or email
for any other purpose that the CIVIC.

 

10. Thematic
working groups
Thematic working groups, mandated by the CIVIC, can be
organized to develop specific discussions and action proposals. The
outputs of these working groups will be validated by the CIVIC.

A separate document describes the organization and
methodology for the TWGs that are organized for January-March 2003.
These groups and facilitators as of January 2003 are as follows:

 
 

Organization and Methodology for the
TWGs (January - March 2003)

Infrastructure
Felipe
Noguera

Capacity
Building
Melody Wong

Content
& Applications

Vidyaratha
Kissoon

Private
Sector Role
George
Nicholson

Civil
Society
Roosevelt
King

Policy
& Regulation
Sylvester
Cadette

The CIVIC is also
working in collaboration with a “financing and development partners”
virtual group  that gathers development cooperation agencies,
development banks and other regional or multilateral funding bodies
that do or wish to support regional ICT initiatives.
 

 

11. Netiquette rules
or how to participate in virtual communities
 
 

Some
common recommendations:

  • Don't
    send attachments (place them in our resource center or send a web link)
  • Do send
    Plain Text (change the settings of your mailer)
  • Write a
    good subject line (change it if necessary)
  • Make it
    readable
  • If
    replying, don’t leave the whole previous message below your answer,
    just specific parts you are answering
  • Include
    contact information- Mention the source(s), web links., copyrights,
    etc.- Be careful don't spread viruses and don't "spam" people

The
following was written byt Shady Kanfi  Senior Program Officer -
Bellanet  

 

  • Be aware
    that whenever you post you always have two options: you can sendto the
    list, or you can send to individuals. When your message veers awayfrom
    the purpose of the list, or from the principle discussions, or when
    itgets personal, send your message to an individual and not the whole
    group.
  • Follow
    the norms set by your community and/or facilitator. Everyone hasfreedom
    of speech o­n the Internet, but nobody has the right to say
    anythingthey want *anywhere* they want. If you join a group, and then
    don't followgroup norms, that group has the right to kick you out.
  • If you
    feel the need to flame, send hate mail, or otherwise reprimandanother
    list member, do it off-list. Such messages destroy the tenuous senseof
    trust and community that group facilitators try so hard to encourage.
  • Be
    courteous to other list members. It's OK to disagree, but always
    berespectful of the person even while you debate the issues. Sometimes
    whatyou say is lost when the way you say it is seen as disrespectful.
  • Be
    cautious when responding to messages that make you passionate.
    Emaillacks the other cues and clues that convey the sense in which what
    you sayis to be taken, and you can easily convey the wrong impression.
    It is goodpractice to wait before responding, or to draft your message
    and review itsome time later before posting. It is always easier to
    edit a message youdrafted earlier in the day, than it is to compose a
    new message withexplanations for those who misunderstood the intent of
    your original post.
  • If you
    meant something in jest, use a 'smiley'  :-)  to convey that
    meaning. The subtleties of sarcasm are different from culture to
    culture,and it may inadvertently cause offence.
  • If you
    engage in a debate, try not to debate in order to change a
    person'smind, it happens less frequently than you might expect. Be
    satisfied withpresenting your point of view clearly and thoroughly, so
    that others inthe group understand what you are saying.

The content
following was partially taken and then modified from: 

Good
practices for newcomers

  • Consult
    the list archives or FAQ, if available, before posting a question. This
    is also a good way to become familiar with a list's acceptable topics,
    etc.
  • Lurk,
    listen and learn what's acceptable before posting to the list.

The Art of
the Subject Line

  • Make
    sure that the 'subject' field of your email message is
    meaningful.  It can be very frustrating to others not to be able
    to judge the content of a message from its subject. When you use the
    'reply' option, ensure that the subject still accurately reflects the
    content of your message (like the title of a book). If it doesn't,
    change it.
  • Try to
    restrict yourself to o­ne subject per message, sending multiple
    messages if you have multiple subjects. This helps recipients to use
    the 'subject' field to judge the importance of the messages they have
    received.
  • Sometimes
    groups develop code words to make it even easier to identify the
    purpose or content of messages. Prepending the words [News], [FYI],
    [URGENT], [Update] etc. to your subject line can help people judge the
    importance/relevance of your message.

Message
Formatting

  • Whenever
    possible, keep posts to the list brief. o­ne or two screens is a
    good upper limit to use. It's always better to give people the option
    of reading more with a link or attachment, rather than forcing them to
    read a lot in your message.
  • Do not
    send HTML, rich text, or stylised email, or messages in
    "quoted-printable" format. Not all email programs of list members will
    recognize such formats. Send messages in plain text aka: ASCII.
  • Sending
    attachments to mailing lists is not advisable, especially large
    o­nes. The majority of Internet users (even in the "North") have
    relatively slow modem connections. Consider including a link instead.-
    Sign your name. Sometimes, your name will not available in the "From:"
    field.
  • If you
    are quoting someone else's message, quote sparingly, and try to
    eliminate any leftover or unnecessary headers. If responding to many
    parts of a single message, alternate between original quotes and your
    responses.
  • DON'T
    SHOUT! WHEN YOU TYPE IN UPPER CASE, IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE YELLING
    o­nLINE. When you want someone's attention, hard-hitting and
    lowercase words are more effective than simple but uppercase words.

Other

  • If you
    are forwarding an email from someone to a mailing list, always ask
    first for permission to make their thoughts public.
  • If you
    do use information not your own, give proper credit.

We highly recommend you to
consult this other sources
Mailing List
Manners 101

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05386

E-mail Tips
& Techniques  how to send e-mail without burning bridges or
closing doors
http://www.planetfriendly.net/emailtips.html

General Rules
and Procedures  Inside the MISTICA Virtual Community

http://funredes.org/mistica/english/emec/rules/proceedings.html

How To
Participate In o­nline Forums
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/onlinetips.html

This guide is also
available in Spanish:
http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/onlinetips2.html

From Workplace
to Workspace: Using Email Lists to Work Together - by Maureen James
http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-9369-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html