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

Thu Jul 10 20:51:35 PDT 2014

Hi Everyone,

Dave is a friend, and I know he has good intentions, but I need to clarify a couple of things...

Most importantly, next week's IGF-USA is not essentially an ISOC event.  The entire process, from beginning to end, has been multistakeholder.  In short, a multistakeholder "Admin Committee" of 14 people are making logistical and time-sensitive, high-level agenda decisions while an open "Steering Committee" made of dozens of people are contributing in a variety of ways.  All of the panels are being organized by members of the Steering Committee, and the Steering Committee has met regularly to discuss key decisions like the overall focus and topics to be discussed.

Dave is free to make his points about the need for financial disclosure and the focus of topics; in fact, I encourage him or others who are interested to  get engaged in the IGF-USA process (if you happen to be in the USA).  Note, however, that Dave has already made his points during one of the IGF-USA Steering Committee meetings and they were not adopted.

Since we are on the topic of the IGF-USA, please allow me to give a brief update...  this year's IGF-USA is going to be a fantastic event and I hope you all will watch the livestream at https://new.livestream.com/internetsociety/igf-usa-2014 and please see http://www.igf-usa.us/page/igf-usa-2014 for the current agenda.  I'm told there are already about 400 people registered to attend in-person, so it will almost certainly be a "sell-out" with a cap of 450.  All of tracks will be streamed live, and each session will have a twitter hashtag, so I hope you will join the online discussion!

Best regards,

Paul Brigner

Regional Bureau Director, North America

Internet Society

202-730-9733

________________________________
From: Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org> on behalf of Dave Burstein <daveb at dslprime.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 10:29 PM
To: ISOC Chapter Delegates; isoc-ny board of directors; internetpolicy at elists.isoc.org; itu-issues-discuss
Subject: [Chapter-delegates] ISOC's great opportunity to inspire ethical policy discussion

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<mailto: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)
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