[Chapter-delegates] Everything you wanted to know but were afraid...

[Franck Martin]

As part of the NomCom process, I was asked to define what is my view and 
vision on ISOC. I post it here to all chapter delegates, so you have 
time to learn who am I. I will be happy to answer questions and have 
also opinions from you. There is still plenty time before voting and 
there may be some extra candidates after the petition period, but it is 
better to start early to see if I can "do no evil" with ISOC ;)

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ISOC is a support organisation to the IETF. I have sent on chapter 
delegates an e-mail to Fred Baker explaining that if ISOC has this role, 
and if the members have to support the role of IETF it is important that 
the jargon in IETF be democratised. Most of individual members have no 
idea what IETF is doing today. I suggested the creation of a newsletter 
explaining in simple terms what the IETF is working on and how it may 
change the way people are using the Internet. I think we have the IETF 
journal now which is not yet readable by the majority of ISOC members. 
It is important however to support this initiative and further the action.

ISOC communication and public relations is very limited. ISOC has many 
members which are respected people in their own region, but the message 
of ISOC has trouble to pass. First there is a need in this day and age 
to rework the ISOC web site in making it more up to date with current 
technologies and participation. The website needs to be multilingual 
friendly. Not all the website needs to be translated but the major 
documents and the web site should contain with link  in the various 
languages to the local chapters. Secondly the website needs to bring 
more interactivity (wiki, blogs, etc...). This is a technical aspect but 
it is very important if ISOC wants to reach all the population which 
does not neccessarily speaks English. I have raised this point in the 
past to ISOC, I hope to have it actioned if board member.

This leads to have ISOC rely more on its chapters. The chapters and the 
organisation members are the core supporting groups of ISOC. They should 
be involved in their geographical areas. I was somehow surprised that 
ISOC was founding an APNIC training for the Pacific Islands and we were 
not alerted. Many Chapters are doing some great initiatives and they 
need the support of ISOC as a whole (including with communication). We 
organise now for several years PacINET in the Pacific Islands and we 
receive some support and communication support from ISOC. ISOC France 
does EGENI and needs the support of ISOC. ISOC Bulgaria is quite active 
too. All these chapters initiative receive still little highlights on 
the global scale inside ISOC.

Increasing links with other organisations. For instance there are no 
links between ISOC and ICANN. An IETF rep sits at the board of ICANN to 
ensure that the decison of the ICANN board are all technically possible. 
ISOC now supports IETF but also ISOC supports ICANN. I have suggested to 
Lynn, that ISOC signs an Memoranding Of Understanding (MOU) with ICANN 
and other organisations. This would formalise some links with other 
Internet Organisations. There could be a MOU with IEEE (which makes most 
of the hardware standards the Internet/IETF relies on).

Better communication with chapters and others. Rarely the board members 
communicate on what is happening during board meeting and what are the 
current issues ISOC is facing. This need to change to ensure the 
chapters, organisations and individuals are more involved in the running 
of ISOC. Minutes of board meetings may be published on ISOC web site, 
but they are very difficult to find. Anyhow a more personnal form of 
reporting is may be needed as to highlight what could be the various 
options. I would gladly report back via chapter delegates. I have done 
it several times on the PICISOC mailing list in regards to two GAC/ICANN 
meetings now and I got hired a Pacific Islander, Apisake Saokai, to 
report back to the Pacific Islands on various WSIS meetings.

Which leads to ISOC amabassadors and accreditation. It is important that 
ISOC weaves a network of ISOC representatives to various international 
meetings. A lot of us, members of ISOC, could represent ISOC too at the 
meetings we are attending. ISOC needs to be accredited with the UN to be 
able to send representatives if needed to these UN meetings. I'm 
thinking also IPO, WTO, UNESCO,... There has been a start with the ISOC 
amabassadors to the WSIS. This initiative needs to be continued.

The project from Andreu Vea Baro, needs to be supported by ISOC. It 
would be highly benefitial if we would have interviews of the major 
Internet architects an players on ISOC web site. Also a who's who of the 
persons attending ISOC and IETF meetings.

These are a couple of points which I feel are important for the 
development of ISOC and which I feel I should concentrate some energy.  
There are certainly some other points of importance, but they will 
reveal themselves as I gain more knowledge in ISOC and ISOC people.

Finally you can find a short CV at:
http://www.peachymango.org/tiki-index.php?page=Franck+Martin 
<http://www.peachymango.org/tiki-index.php?page=Franck+Martin>

The CV will answer the following points:
    * Organizational leadership experience, including Board experience 
(CROP ICT WG, USP IT Committee, PICISOC Board,...)
    * General business skills (Deputy Team Leader on 9.5M Euro EU 
Project for the Pacific Islands, directly in charge of ICT Budget)
    * Ability to raise funds for not-for-profit organizations (work for 
SOPAC a governmental donor funded organisation, PacINET organiser,...)
    * Non-for-profit experience (PICISOC, Free Software,...)
    * The ability to identify relevant ISOC projects and obtain funds or 
other resources to accomplish them (see above)
    * Vision for the role of the Internet Society (participated in MMM 
and ISOC SOP)

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Franck Martin
franck at sopac.org
"Toute connaissance est une réponse à une question"
G. Bachelard