[Chapter-delegates] ISOC Elections result

[Frédéric Donck]

Dear All

Thank you to give me the occasion to respond to this very interesting
thread.
I will not comment on the past- Fred, among others, did it very well- but I
would like to get back to the reasoning behind the organisation of current
INETs (including those ones which will be organised by ISOC during the next
coming months).

What strikes me from my participation to international conferences on
internet related issues (and IGF Rio is a perfect example) is the
*unanimous* call from key stakeholders during those events that one needs to
localize/regionalize our efforts. In other words, sharing
experience/capacity building at international level is extremely important,
but, at the end of the day, you do *also*need to *land* this at
regional/local level if you want to make a concrete impact on internet
related issues, starting with access. If we try to translate that
recommendation at "ISOC level", I believe that ISOC added value is precisely
to make our effort really count and really impact at a local level. And we
believe that ISOC is absolutely well "equipped" to do this and both Chapters
and Bureaus are *absolutely* central to this effort.

This said, I absolutely agree that one critical condition to the success of
any regional INETs is to be able to reach those decision makers and policy
makers at regional level. And this implies that ISOC succeeds in organizing
events that attract people "beyond the usual suspects". This is the reason
why we are currently beginning to explore new partnership opportunities, at
regional level, in order to attract a broader audience and high level
political influencers.
Of course, we would appreciate hearing any suggestions on what organizations
we should all work with and any other suggestions for broadening ISOC'S
reach 
and impact.

Thank you 
Best Regards

Frederic

Frederic Donck
Director Public Policy
Internet Society

www.isoc.org
-----Original Message-----
From: chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org
[mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of Veni
Markovski
Sent: 13 May 2008 19:02
To: chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] ISOC Elections result

At 07:49 AM 5/13/2008  -0600, Fred Baker wrote:
>Part of this has to be content that will attract people. ISOC
>Barcelona was largely about Internet Governance, one of far too many
>places where people got together to babble illogically on ill-defined
>topics. The talk I gave in Barcelona listed four possible meanings of
>the title and stated that it was hard to have a viable discussion
>unless someone picked a definition.

Which explains why the WSIS, and the follow-up IGF have been 
successful, unlike the INETs. The economics of the conference is not 
the primary issue, when people meet together to discuss policies. 
INET could have replaced the WSIS and the IGF, but it didn't succeed 
in that, partly probably because it was considered more of a "geeks' 
conference", rather than a forum place.

>Bottom line, it costs something to have a conference. If a few people
>come, cost divided by attendance looks pretty steep, and that plus
>travel cost/time keeps people away. If a lot of people come, it
>becomes far more reasonable. The INETs in 1998 and 1999 had a
>devastating effect on the Society because folks didn't come. We can
>do anything that works financially, but there has to be enough income
>to pay the expenses.


Well, that is, if ISOC will be paying the expenses. Who pays for the 
IGF, and if it was that expensive, why would people still do it, and 
want to host it? The situation today is that INET is not needed - 
people discuss all issues around the Internet at three major 
conferences - IGF, IETF and ICANN. INET could have filled-in the 
vacuum, if it was re-established earlier, if the .org money were used 
partly for that goal. Today, I think it is too late.
Now, tomorrow - that's a different issue. Instead of wondering what 
to do, and getting into the arguments about the past INET, why not 
focus on 2011, and see what the world will be after the IGF is over, 
and where ISOC will stand. I suggest this discussion.

As for bringing chapters to an all-world chapter meetings, surely 
ISOC could find in its budget money for such an activity, and cover 
the travel and stay of the chapter representatitves. If this is being 
done adjustant to another i* event, that would be even better.

Veni 


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