[Chapter-delegates] ISOC's great opportunity to inspire ethical policy discussion

[Dave Burstein]

Next week's US-IGF, essentially an ISOC event, is a great opportunity to
address the power of money in policy.

I'm introducing
​
a
​ ​
simple motion
​ ​
at tomorrow morning's open steering committee meeting:
​for that event. (Email me for callin if you like.)​


*1- All speakers be requested to provide information on recent financial
ties or funding requests that might pose a conflict. In general, we hope
everyone chooses to disclose payments from companies and their associations
that have important policy goals*

* ​*
​
    I carefully am not accusing anyone of corruption; in fact many of those
lobbying have high personal ethics. Rather, I believe the DC policy debate
suffers from "publication bias," with corporations and those who agree with
them and.or take money from them able to dominate the debate.
 ​​
 I phrased this carefully as a “request,” not a requirement, to make it
easy to support. What should be disclosed was left to the speakers’
discretion.

​​
   Nearly every major medical journal requires authors to disclose ties,
usually in a note to the article. The medical people have developed massive
evidence that “publication bias” affects science as well. In policy, those
with the time and money to attend events often predominate. In some recent
D.C. events, I’ve noticed over 80% of those involved are current or former
lobbyists and their friends in the government.

​  ​
  Disclosure is the right thing to do, even if we don’t win this battle.
​
​
ISOC c
​hoosing ​
f
inancial
​d
isclosure in
​t
elecom
​p
olicy
​c​
ould
​m​
ake a
​d​
ifference
​. Washington D.C. is rife with "astroturf" lobbyists and many others
taking corporate money. That's spreading worldwide.  ​
​

 ​    ISOC CEO Kathy Brown & NA leader Paul Brigner both post their emails
http://www.internetsociety.org/who-we-are/staff-and-advisors , They
understand these issues in depth.

   ​Do reach out to them; the easiest and most profitable path in D.C. is
to "go along to get along" but that's not the best way to deliver the
Internet for everybody. Too many of those offering money in D.C. have a
strong interest in raising the price of Internet access. High speed in the
U.S. typically costs 30-60% more than our peers in Europe because broadband
competition fell to two players, DSL & cable.

*I'm also introducing another motion*

*2-  We urge all speakers to concentrate on improving governance in the
U.S. rather than Americans preaching to others what to do. *

​I'm on the U.S. State Department ITAC. Far too much of what I hear in D.C.
is "White Man's Burden" thinking, ignoring the great strides being made
around the world. China has twice as many broadband subs as the U.S. By
around 2017, both Africa and India ​will have more Internet users than the
U.S.; continued domination by U.S. companies and governments will be
unsustainable.

   Americans should first put out own house in order.
Dave Burstein
daveb at dslprime.com

Editor, Fast Net News, Net Policy News and A Wireless Cloud
Author with Jennie Bourne  DSL (Wiley, 2002) and Web Video: Making It
Great, Getting It Noticed (Peachpit, 2008)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/private/chapter-delegates/attachments/20140710/c4b9a586/attachment.htm>