[Chapter-delegates] 2014 Internet Society Board of Trustees Elections

[Evan Leibovitch]

On Mar 29, 2014 11:34 PM, "Joly MacFie" <joly at punkcast.com> wrote:

> Personally I see the role of the Chapters as being two-way, i.e. also
representing the Internet's interests to individual people.

I agree that the relationship must be two-way,  although I'm not sure that
"the Internet" has its own interests to assert.

How I interpret the "top down" component of the Chapter relationship with
end users is two-fold:

1) We *must* make the workings of the Internet accessible and
understandable to all. That means getting through the jargon and using
simple (and translated wherever needed) language. So long as only the
technical and business elites understand Internet culture and jargon, only
they will steer its discretion.

2) Even more challenging, we must convince end users to care about the
openness of the Internet, and not allow public indifference to be exploited
for financial and/or political gain.

It's easy to see that there is no shortage of Internet policy "expertise"
(almost 200 submissions to Netmundial). But only ISOC has the ability to
produce commentary truly based on the response of an aware and engaged
public.

IMO the relationship between Chapters and their local end-user communities
is at least as important as their relationships with ISOC HQ. It is our
unique strength, and it must be nurtured.
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