[Chapter-delegates] Appointment of former MPAA CTO Paul Brigner as North American Regional Director of Internet Society

[Veni Markovski]

I know Paul since the time he was working at Verizon, and as one of the 
active participants at the ISOC-DC, quite a positive one, in fact.

While I understand the controversy with his position at MPAA, I talked 
to him couple of times, when he was there, trying to find a way to 
propose a solution to some of their issues, but it was a no go. Clearly, 
he must have been more frustrated to search for a new opportunity to 
move out of MPAA.  Plus, Sally is now full time ITU-related, and ISOC 
needed a new director for North America anyway.

I am afraid, that if chapters attack new appointees immediately, that's 
not a good starter, unless of course there's a serious breach of trust 
or conduct.
In principle - *there are no people at ISOC, who should be attacked - 
there are policies at ISOC, which deserve criticism, *but not people 
(unless, of course, they also make a move that deserves criticism;-).

So, I believe it is fair, if we give Paul some time to prove himself 
(and only if he doesn't, then we criticize him:-)

I am *more worried *at the problems we as chapters are facing with 
regards to the *lack of positive reaction to our initiatives on 
policies, than on their appointments. *ISOC has a CEO, who is running 
the organization for 10+ years, and surely knows what kind of people to 
appoint, that's part of the CEO's job.
What worries me even more, given the enthusiasm of the chapters by every 
appointment last year (and I hear more good announcements are coming), 
*we did not see the same enthusiastic reaction by ISOC towards the 
chapters*.

The latest developments around the LoA are just one more sign that 
relations between ISOC and chapters are not good.

*I would rather see change of policy from ISOC, with Paul participating 
in it, than spend time questioning his appointment.*

Best,
Veni

On 3/21/2012 11:26, Livingood, Jason wrote:
>> I am profoundly disturbed by the appointment of Paul Brigner as North
>> American Regional Director of the Internet Society.
>>
>> In his previous position as Chief Technology Officer at the Motion
>> Picture Association of America (MPAA) he worked for the passage of PIPA
>> and SOPA.
> <snip>
>
>> The effective endorsement of MPAA policy positions by the Internet
>> Society with the appointment of Brigner threatens to poison those
>> relationships and severely damage the good name of the Internet Society.
>>
>> I respectfully request that you reconsider the appointment of Paul
>> Brigner as North American Regional Director of the Internet Society.
> I really hope you give Paul a chance to show you what he can do. He worked
> for the MPAA for just one year. COICA, SOPA, and PIPA were in the works
> for significantly longer than that so I seriously doubt Paul had any hand
> in crafting those policy positions. Working on issues of copyright and
> blocking is important to ISOC and having someone with close knowledge of
> that seems to me to be valuable.
>
> His full CV is at http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbrigner which says to me
> there is a lot he brings to the table.
>
> - Jason
>
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