[chapter-delegates] Re: Nomination of Veni Markowski

[veni markovski]

Dear Ramon,

Thank you for your support!


So, it marks a good time to start a discussion about the future of ISOC.

I have to be very frank with all of you, and you know I am speaking 
honestly by default; or as a friend one said, "you have the dangerous gift 
ot eloquence" (And for the non-native English speakers like me, I also had 
to check that word at 
http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/eloquence :-))

I think that ISOC needs an evaluation by external evaluators. So far we 
have never done an external evaluation. Usually when we are looking for 
someone to do something for ISOC, it would be usually a person who has been 
involved with ISOC for years. That's not very good, although it's 
productive in the short-term.

Nine months ago I started a discussion on the ISOC board list about where 
we are going, how we are being lead, what are the weak and the strong sides 
of ISOC.
My main line was "There is something new in 2004, some call it public 
policy, some call it Internet governance. No matter how we define it, it 
requires urgent steps from ISOC to start change things, and not just 
reflect them. Unfortunately I was among the minority.
However, after eight months of fights, we managed to agree upon a budget 
that has some limited funds for public policy projects, peformed by chapters.
You'd say "That's a great news!"

I'd argue it.

It's just a news.

It would have been a great news, if the funds were adequate to the amounts 
coming to ISOC from PIR, where the initial idea was to spend them as the 
name of the organization says.

My colleagues on the Board of Trustees are great people - each of them is 
proven specialist and/or engineer.

But what we lack in ISOC is a vision.
As the President of Senegal described this during the WSIS PrepCom-2 in 
February 2003 in Geneva, "Vision is when you have a dream and money to make 
it happen". Well, ISOC has the money, but not dreams.

Can we, while we are discussing this, tell to this mailing list what our 
dreams are? (hey, only in the term of IT-related; not generally speaking:)

I will start, and would be happy if you follow:

My dreams:
- Affordable Internet access for everyone;
- Countries, governments and individuals will have the right to choose 
among providers, which will charge only fraction of what they charge today. 
That also includes software providers, with software tools better than the 
existing - compare e.g. Firefox with MS Internet Explorer.
- Better national legislature, aimed at enhancing Internet usage, freedom 
of speech, access to information
- Bring the pioneers' spirit back to ISOC

(I actually have more dreams, but don't want to start a huge discussion off 
the main topic:)

Does ISOC have the money to make these and all yours dreams happen?

I'd say yes and no.
We don't need to go all over in 250 countries and territories to make these 
dreams true. We need to bring awareness to the people in all countries, and 
make sure they understand the importance of the Internet. We need to talk 
to governments, presidents, members of parliament. We need to educate in 
the public policy field.

We don't need to build infrastructure. You all probably know the story 
about the man who was hungry, and there are two ways to help him - one, 
give him a fish so he will stop to be hungry. Two - teach him how to fish, 
and he'll do the fishing from now on. ISOC needs to teach people why they 
should invest in Internet infrastructure. Why they have to change laws, 
liberalize telecommunications markets, stop licensing on ISPs, etc., etc.

We need and not need many more things, but are we looking forward to 
achieve them? Do we have to do that? Who could and should do it?

Can we accept that ISOC must look more into the public policy, the Internet 
governance, the UN... It must become a really international Internet society.
And I believe that chapter-elected trustees bring this spirit.

We need to teach not only other people, but ISOC itself - e.g. that while 
standards are important, sometimes there are more important things than 
standards:-)

We need also to find a diplomatic way to explain to our colleagues that 
there's nothing wrong when we criticize ISOC, its president/ceo, the chair 
of the Board, or the whole Board.
It's much better to hear the voice of a friend, who's telling you what you 
did wrong than the voice of an enemy, saying what a great job you did.

I am kind of getting tired at this time of the day, and have to travel 
tomorrow to second biggest city in Bulgaria Plovdiv, where I have a keynote 
speech on e-governance and free software in the information society:)

So, I hope we'll continue this conversation on the mailing list.

Once again - thanks, and I will try not to fail your expectations. And 
mine, too!


Sincerely,
Veni

At 10:45 29-01-2005 -0400, Ramon Morales wrote:

>
>Chapter-Delegates:
>This upcoming election of a chapter candidate to the ISOC Board presents a 
>great opportunity to support the type of leadership that we seek from ISOC 
>on a global level. I am declaring my intention to endorse and support Veni 
>Markowski to continue as our Chapter Board representative. I believe that 
>Veni has been a strong and courageous voice for chapters and has displayed 
>great patience and courage in the midst of adversity.
>
>The election of Chapter representatives to the Board in no way means that 
>once elected these representatives should become narrow and parochial; 
>ignoring the needs of the world Internet community. But it does mean that 
>we expect them to represent us; to have the courage to say and uphold what 
>may not be popular so long as they are in tune with the needs of the 
>Chapters that elected them in the first place. ISOC is undergoing a deep 
>and thorough search for its place in a new world that wants access to the 
>Internet and we are, as a global organization, in the best position to 
>provide this support. After reading and listening for the last four years, 
>I have drawn the conclusion that at the heart of the Internet Governance 
>debate lurks an even bigger issue: the crisis of leadership. We need to 
>foster a new leadership that upholds the values of openness, truth, 
>willingness to speak out against tyranny no matter where or how it 
>manifests itself. This leadership must uphold principle over power and 
>learn how to engage others in creating a consensus even in the most 
>difficult of situations.
>
>I believe that all three of our chapter representatives today embody these 
>qualities. Veni's re-election would provide a basis for continuity and 
>keep a chapter's champion in the position where he belongs: Board Trustee 
>of the Internet Society.
>

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