[Chapter-delegates] Special Invitation to Global INET 2012 - etc. etc.

Wed Jan 25 02:45:10 PST 2012

Dear Norbert,

wow! Thank you for this!

I was considering to take the effort to go to INET2012 - not a big one
actually being based in Germany. I attended all INETs between 91 and
98. As far as I remember all of them had program committees, call for
papers, ... A process too academic for ISOC today? At least it was
transparent, it had some mechanism to collect ideas and to assure quality.
Looking at the announcement of INET2012 I can see nothing like this.
All you can say today is that there might be a program. There is an
Agenda on a Glance available. The topics you read there are what you
would expect: e.g.: /The Open Internet and the Security and Privacy
Conundrum/ or /The Rule of Law and the Internet: Is the online world
different from the offline world?/ or /Collaboration: The Key
Ingredient for Advancing Internet Innovation/ did we discuss these
topics before? Not that we finished the discussion but the agenda
doesn't tell you why you should expect something new. But there is
help: /For additional details on our event, download the Global INET
brochure <http://www.internetsociety.org/global-inet-brochure-pdf>/.
Hm, an Internet organization that provides the meat in print? Well, if
you are not interested in some excellent - and probably expensive -
artwork: no need to download since it only replicates what is on the
Web pages.

Did you notice that the early registration closed by Jan 20^th ? And
still wrt the program we are supposed to buy a pig in a poke.

Admitted: the conference program is not everything. But the way it is
composed tells a lot about the spirit of the event. /Father knows
best/ vs a /transparent process/, /marketing bubbles/ vs. /listen to
your prospective audience/, /wheeling and dealing/ vs. /participation/.
Veni generously started this thread with another example for
transparency within ISOC.

More often than never I hear members complain about ISOC
communications: too much sales not enough content. I wonder if the way
INET2012 is organized can reduce these concerns.

Klaus

PS.: wrt INET96 2 things are burned into my memory: the vibrating
Montreal Jazz festival with musicians all over the city (seriously
competing with the excellent conference program) and a chat with
Norbert on his work that time in Cambodia. Maybe I should check the
Geneva events calendar for April 22+ to make-up my mind wrt INET2012.

President ISOC-KH wrote on 2012-01-24 17:02:
> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chapter-delegates mailing list
> Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates
>
> -- 
> Klaus Birkenbihl
> Internet Society German Chapter e.V. (ISOC.DE)
> http://www.isoc.de/
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