[Chapter-delegates] Application to form a Chapter in Bogota, Colombia

[Patrick Vande Walle]

On Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:52:46 +1000, Anne Lord <lord at isoc.org> wrote:

> Perhaps you can help me understand something here: specifically as to
> why more ISOC Chapters (albeit city based Chapters alongside national
> Chapters) *automatically* means that ISOC appears "divided".  Perhaps
> I am misunderstanding something but in the true multi-stakeholder 
> spirit of collaboration, could this not equally be seen as a stronger 
> voice for ISOC rather than a divided one, offering more local 
> opportunity to ensure that "The Internet is for Everyone" ?

Dear Anne,

Let me paraphrase Henry Kissinger: "If I want to talk to ISOC in my
country, which number should I call ?" 

When to comes to governance and policy issues, no government official
is willing to deal with multiple people carrying the ISOC hat and
expressing - however slightly - different views. Each of them only
representing one part of the local ISOC community. 

We should apply the subsidiarity principle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity  It makes perfect sense for
ISOC "global" to talk to the UN. Just like it makes perfect sense that
European bureau, with the ECC, should be the main channel to talk to the
EU. Why is why I advocate that there should be coordination structures
at the national level  to talk to the national government in countries
where there are multiple chapters. 
Multi-stakeholderism should not mean lack of coordination and
confusion. 

So, let me rephrase my previous statement. If we can have guarantees
that we will have only ONE voice in Colombia to talk to national
government officials, then I would be fine with a multiple chapter
approach.

I hope this clarifies my previous e-mail.

Patrick
-- 
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