Following on from the MAG meeting that took place last week after two days of open consultation, an official summary of the meeting has just been released. The most important development foreshadowed here takes forward two of the ideas brought up during the open consultation meeting: firstly that there are certain areas in which a consensus on the need for action has emerged or may emerge, and secondly that the IGF needs to evolve some structure that could produce proposals for such action.

I've already exhaustively explained my own model by which this could occur, which involving an empowered MAG that formalises such of the recommendations of dynamic coalitions and workshops as the MAG is satisfied have been adopted by rough consensus by the IGF in plenary session. The MAG now seems to be considering a variation of this model, whereby dynamic coalitions would take the lead in organising plenary round table discussions to produce plans for action in certain issue areas. The only missing piece, then (and it may not be a vital one) is for those action plans to be blessed by the MAG, so as to make them the recommendations of the IGF that its mandate requires.

A quote from the official summary itself explains further:

Round table discussions could be held to deal with issues where there is a reasonable chance of of participants agreeing to take action together. These issues include the empowerment and protection of children and the accessibility for people with disabilities. The respective dynamic coalitions would be asked to help prepare these round tables and there was a general agreement that due care should be taken to ensure a reasonable balance is achieved. Other round table discussions on other issues would be defined in light of proposals for workshops. Multilingualism was mentioned as another possible issue area for round tables, including access to local content. The afternoon of the third day will be reserved for the reporting back of round tables and workshops. However, the point was also made that the role and function of round tables needed further discussions.