Dear Fellow Chapter Delegates,
Dear Alejandro for having started an important discussion, and for
refocusing it,
Dear Anne for your clarifications – in addition to our regular good
cooperation,
Dear Veni for sharing the information about your special invitation to
the Geneva meeting, and asking for more transparency on procedures,
and thanks to the many others who joined in the discussion since,
sharing the conviction that the Internet Society has to give more weight
and role to its Chapters – the common ground on which we exist.
Having read with growing interest the discussion as it developed, I was
thinking since some time to join.
Anne's explanation, Alejandro's response, and Veni's information let me
start, and I add some elements.
Some initial information:
1) I am quite happy that our young, possibly future leader, who has not
attended any international ISOC events, who got positive endorsements
from 3 of the 5 members of our Board, was finally accepted according to
ISOC procedures as a recipient of the Geneva travel fellowship. We have
scheduled a number of preparatory meetings where I will try to prepare
him as well as possible for the Geneva events.
2) Looking back at “my” ISOC history since 1996 is, of course quite
personal. After having started the first ISP in Cambodia in 1994, I was
privileged in 1996 to receive a fellowship and to participate in *INET
96 in Montreal: “The Internet Society 1996 Workshop on Network
Technology for Countries in the Early Stages of Internetworking.”*
3) I did now some research on ISOC history – especially about people in
our history – but I could not find a report about INET 1996 after it was
finished, nor the participants' list – I think we were about 250
participants, about 50:50 anglo- and franco-phone. *The 1996 program
goals were the following:
“The workshop is specifically directed toward the needs of people from
developing countries who are playing or will play an important part in
introducing and extending networking in their countries and regions.”*
To find original sources of the 1996 INET event and workshop was not
easy – finally I found
http://www.isoc.org/inet96/inet96/index.html
(but in future it may be
http://www.internetsociety.org/inet96/inet96/index.html ?)
The event was announced like this:
*
Since 1991, the INET conferences have become a common meeting ground for
participants interested in the design, implementation, operation and use
of the Internet. Global policy and economic issues, ethical concerns,
and many technical issues are raised in a variety of contexts. The rapid
influx of commercial and individual users on the Internet has influenced
the nature of the system and broadened its utility. The importance of
the Internet and its technology to all sectors of the global economy is
growing as is the social impact of access to the Internet. The goal of
this conference is to provide a platform that will bring together those
developing and implementing Internet networks, technologies,
applications and policies worldwide for infrastructure development. *
But more impressive is the detailed program plan – it is really
worthwhile to open this link about a really “extraordinary event” with
an impressive program:
http://www.isoc.org/inet96/proceedings/index.htm
My effort, to find a list of participants did not lead anywhere (if
anybody can find it – please let me know). But I remember *some
participants from Montreal whom I met later over the years – they turned
out to be leaders. Surely there are more (sorry – I mention only some I
immediately remember to have met later repeatedly):
Alex Corentin* – Senegal – President of ISOC Senegal
*Mohammad Diop* – Senegal, ICANN board member
*Luis German Rodriguez* - Venezuela
*Mao Chakriya* – Cambodia - director general of the Ministry of Post and
Telecommunication
*Nii Quaynor* – Ghana – ISOC Postel Award 2007
*Emmanuel Tonye* – Cameroon - Professor in Telecommunications and
Remote Sensing, University of Yaounde
*The search for our present Chair of the ISOC Board,* whom I also had
first met at INET 96, was quite difficult:
Old fashioned – and I got:
*Your search - isoc "Raúl Echeverría" site:www.isoc.org - did not match
any documents.*
New (still with problems – but Google helped to solve them):
*No results found for "Raúl Echeverría" site:www.internetsociety.org.*
*Results for Raúl Echeverría site:www.internetsociety.org (without quotes):
Search Results
Board of Trustees | Internet Society
www.internetsociety.org/who-we-are/board-trustees
Selected By: Chapters. Raúl Echeberría. Uruguay. Term: ... Compensation
Committee. Raúl Echeberría, Chair · Bob Hinden · Bert Wijnen. Elections
Committee ...*
Why only “(without quotes)”? - Because the ISOC site of the Board
Trustees gives his name as Echeberría, but actually it is Echeverría.
*How do, for example, these persons remember and evaluate the last 20
years of ISOC?
*
When we reflect on these 20 years – what have we achieved since –
looking at some of the 49 program items from INET 1996?
/Multilanguage Support - Character Sets for Internet Services - The
Internet and the Mass Media - Classroom Access to the Net: Who Will
Build It? - Learning Diversity and Difference: Culture on the Net -
Students as Partners in the Learning Process - Communities and Networks
- Multicultural and Physical Access Barriers - Internet Content: Rights
and Responsibilities - Security and Cryptography Directions - Democratic
Processes - Ensuring Internet Access/
What did we learn – where are we facing the same questions, but did not
find new ways? And why?
/Bulgaria is still struggling to get their country code in their own
script accepted by ICANN; how are the mass media and the Internet
dealing with their related futures; why is classroom access in some
regions of the world almost as far away as it was in 1996 - is there, or
why is there no progress? How do we operate our chapters in view of
difficulties for democratic processes and censorship - different from
situation to situation – having now a Vice President of Public Policy?
Do we want to, can we do it, in our different contexts? Where do we
really work together?
/
I think it is legitimate to look back, analyze, and compare, and
consider whether, or not, we have a common future.
This is my background when I consider some aspects of the present plans
for Geneva.
I am disappointed that I still do not see much of CONTENT in the program
schedule for Geneva 2012. And, as Veni said: there is a lack of
transparency about the procedures by which we move. I say “we” - even
being only from a small, struggling Chapter.
All my questions relate to the fact that there is a wide distance
between some headquarter procedures and decisions, and the situation of
– at least some – of the Chapters.
Ted Mooney, Senior Director, Membership & Services, wrote recently:
*Because we believe this will be an extraordinary event, we wanted the
registration to be:
• Better than market for similar events
• Reflective of the value of the event
• Affordable by a high percentage of those who want to participate
• An opportunity to our members and to students
*
“Affordable by a high percentage of those who want to participate” - is
this a joke, or are we allowed to feel offended? I would like to know
more about how this percentage was calculated. We are not in walking
distance from Geneva, and – to use a reference figure – a high school
teacher here has a monthly salary in the range of US$ 50.- (fifty, not 500).
I can read such a statement only as relating to an understanding what
the Internet Society is: a business conglomerate? The Geneva event is
“Better than market for similar events” - which “market,” and which
“similar” events?
Our colleagues Grigori Saghyan, ISOC.AM, said:
/I have same impression, that this event is designed in a way to
represent young generation on INET, without "old men" presence. May be
this is a right decision, in 1990-is participants were 25-40 years old,
active, young, dedicated persons. Today these persons are 45-60 years
old, may be not very active and creative. Young generation can give new
spirit and new vision. But if there is such policy, it will be excellent
to declare this policy openly. Of course, even in this case necessary to
have exact program and speakers,
/
Now we have a speaker and we can be thrilled – as Ted Mooney said:
Professor Leonard Kleinrock will deliver the keynote address. I am
looking forward to the report when our fellowship recipient will be
back, because in the years since 1983, since I started to use and
promote the use of e-mail, and since 1994, when I established the first
connection to the Internet from Cambodia – the first ISP here - and in
1996 the ccTLD .kh which I administered it for some years, and
throughout the years since, involved also with the francophone
communicating community and with ICANN, I had never heard about
Professor Kleinrock. My mistake.
So far I could find out that, in his own words, he said: "Basically,
what I did for my PhD research in 1961–1962 was to establish a
mathematical theory of packet networks..." - as a key mathematical
background on queuing theory, leading to packet switching, the basic
technology behind the Internet. Twelve years later in 1977, on the basis
of this mathematical background, the Internet finally started to be
developed in the form of the ARPANET; and then come the names many of us
know from history - Robert Kahn, Vint Cerf, Jan Postel, and many
others. It will be interesting to hear how this leap from a mathematical
algorithm to practice is seen now, in the struggles related to the
social impact of the Internet, to keep the internet free and open in a
difficult economic and political atmosphere.
*I want to close with a serious practical concern. *Our accepted ISOC
Travel Fellowship recipient received the following information with the
paperwork:
Insurance:
*The Internet Society is not responsible for the Travel Fellow’s
personal health, safety, or belongings.
Acquiring and paying for any insurance that you might want to conclude,
including travel, health, and property insurance is the Travel Fellow’s
responsibility and not the Internet Society’s responsibility.
*
I understand that this is standard procedure – every chapter can send
one fellowship applicant, every applicant is treated according to the
same rule – all: those from north America, and from western Europe
(where the majority of people are covered by their health insurance
anyway when they travel to Switzerland), and those from Cambodia, and
from some other countries lumped together as the LDCs – “the least
developed countries” - what a nice word. Fair? Just? Why? Did those who
planned this event think about it and think this is OK? - I am now
investigating to find out which international insurer will provide such
insurance for a Cambodian citizen. And at which cost. And then start to
find somebody who might help our chapter to cover these costs. The
Internet is for everyone, no?
Norbert Klein
President
ISOC Cambodia Chapter
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