[chapter-delegates] Position of ISOC Italy on Veni Markovski's petition

[Vittorio Bertola]

Il giorno lun, 02-05-2005 alle 03:02 +0300, Veni Markovski ha scritto: 
> >At the same time, we remark that the present discussions are severely
> >damaging the public image and the internal cohesion of ISOC, and we
> >encourage all parties to work to reduce such damage and to ensure that
> >all points of view in the ISOC community find a way to be properly
> >represented and taken into account.
> 
> May I ask you exactly what you mean by that?
> Which discussions do you have in mind? Why do you think that a discussion 
> within ISOC's chapters' list will damage the image of ISOC? You have seen 
> the discussion on the governance mailing list, where people who know ISOC 
> from the inside speak. Will you also ask them to stop speaking?

(Now speaking in totally personal capacity.)

I don't think I ever asked to anyone to stop speaking. At the same time,
your exclusion and your subsequent complaints were one of the main
subjects of discussion (at least among the "Internet people") in the
corridors of the last WGIG consultations in Geneva.

Whenever ISOC speaks up, there are people (even some ISOC members!)
noting that its positions are more or less identical to those of the ICC
and of other business representatives, and making explicit claims that
ISOC statements do not represent "the voice of the Internet", but, at
most, the voice of a handful of people from Washington, D.C., with
strong connections to the policy and business environment of the United
States. Your case was brought as the ultimate example of this.

Now, I think that the first responsibility of this situation resides
with the ISOC leadership itself, and with their lack of dialogue with
the rest of the world (to make another example, to the best of my
knowledge, no representative from ISOC HQ ever showed up to any civil
society meeting in the WSIS/WGIG process, even if HQ was very active and
always present at least to WGIG meetings). However, the heated climate
of the discussion between HQ and most Chapters reflects to the outside,
and makes ISOC in the overall much weaker. This is why I think that we
should all use less exclamation marks, and try to work out solutions
that do not exacerbate the conflicts.

Specifically, I think that the only way to solve the pending contrast
between many Chapters and HQ is for some people to act as mediators
trusted by all parties, trying to convince the HQ to listen more to
Chapters, and the Chapters to gain some more trust in the HQ. My
personal concern is that, after all this noise, even if you were elected
it would be very hard for you to have a constructive dialogue with the
HQ and the rest of the Board of Trustees. I'm not saying that this is
your fault, or that you should not say what you think, but I am worried
about what will come out of this situation.
-- 
vb.             [Vittorio Bertola - v.bertola [a] bertola.eu.org]<-----
http://bertola.eu.org/  <- Prima o poi...