[Chapter-delegates] New wiki posting: UN Requests annual report on "enhanced cooperation"

[Bill Graham]

Dear Chapter members,

Last week, ISOC President and CEO, Lynn St. Amour, received a letter  
by fax from the Under-Secretary General of the United Nations (see  
link below).  The letter is "an invitation" to ISOC to submit annual  
performance reports on our "enhanced cooperation on public policy  
issues pertaining to the Internet."  I understand that several other  
non-UN agencies active in the Internet space received similar letters,  
as did the main related agencies in the UN system.

This letter comes out of the World Summit on the Information Society  
debates on Internet governance.  The WSIS ended in November 2005, so  
it comes as a bit of a surprise to receive a request such as this more  
than two years later without any prior discussion with the community.

I wanted to let you know that we have received this letter, and that  
we are considering our response to the request for an annual  
performance report.  We have started consulting with other  
organizations in the Internet community to see how they intend to  
respond.  Also, we have posted a copy of the UN's letter to the ISOC  
wiki site to provide you with an opportunity to comment on the  
invitation from the United Nations.  Please see <http://wiki.tools.isoc.org/Policy_Activities/UN_report_request 
 > if you are interested or have comments to offer.  It would be  
helpful to have comments posted by the end of April 2008.

I also should explain why we've used this separate public wiki for  
this posting, rather than posting it directly on the chapters wiki.   
The reason is that we feel it is important to be able to share the  
letter broadly in the Internet community.  We also want to make a  
single site available to collect comments in a transparent manner  
where everyone involved can see one another's postings.  Additionally,  
the registration/login requirement provides some level of protection  
against automated and nuisance postings to the wiki.

Best wishes

Bill Graham
Global Strategic Engagement
The Internet Society
graham at isoc.org
www.isoc.org/pubpolpillar/governance/globalengage.shtml