[Chapter-delegates] ISOC Report on Plenipotentiary Conference week 2 & views on Internet issues

[Veni Markovski]

Siva,
ITU's role is clearly defined in the WSIS documents, as well as the role of
civil society, governments, intergovernmental organizations. We can't define
it today, five years later.
What I find strange is, that there were no ISOC meetings at the PP10, where
we could share views and exchange ideas on ways to coordinate better our
efforts.
The results were good, but they were achieved in the last day, in the last
hour, and by that time there were no people from ISOC in Guadalajara.
I firmly believe chapters are vital for ISOC, not just as a proof it is an
internationally diverse organization, but as an opportunity for ISOC to
reach out and find out what the problems are in different countries. Even at
the PP10 it was clear that problems of developing countries are different
from the problems of developed countries (although, in some cases with
unexpected facts!). There are many chapters in countries, where ISOC could
search for facts or inspiration, in order to prepare good documents to be
used among governments.
One of the conclusions from the PP10 that I've made myself, is that the
documents, provided by the West are not good enough for the East. The ITU,
and the governments there, are in desperate need of good documents, which
simply cannot be produced by ISOC Headquarters in US or Switzerland. What
might work is for the bureaus to reach out to chapters, and see under what
conditions these documents can be produced. Government officials can't spend
time reading 30-page document, printed on white paper, and full with nice
pictures of how the Internet works. They need 2 pages, with facts, and
sources. Perhaps chapters can do this, and perhaps ISOC should explore this
possibility, including compensating the chapters for the time and efforts
they will use to produce the documents.

As a chapter representative, coming from a country, where we have constant
issues with attempts by the government to introduce one way or the other
some restrictions on the Internet, our chapter has certain experience in
understanding, among other, relations between government and big
IT-companies, wiretapping, monitoring of Internet activities, VoIP services,
etc. I am sure that other chapters have experience in similar or different
areas, and this experience is much broader than ISOC's, as well as more
relevant in the context of preparing documents, aiming at governments at the
ITU.

But, of course, it is up to ISOC if they want to engage the chapters in the
ITU outreach, or prefer to work the old way. I, for one, while in
Guadalajara, reached out to ISOC, but ISOC did not respond. As a chapter
president, I find this behavior strange.

Best,
Veni


> ITU's aspirations to control the WSIS process needs to be checked. ISOC's
> second week document is very clear on the limits of ITU's role in the WSIS.
>
>
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