[Chapter-delegates] Issues facing Chapters
Winthrop Yu
w.yu at gmx.net
Sat May 24 17:06:35 PDT 2014
+1 Alejandro, with some observations from local experience ...
Media --
Interviews on mainstream media are good for highlighting and visibility, but
can have limitations. Newspapers and magazines will often edit for
"news-worthiness" which may focus on the more popular or sensationalist aspects
of an issue rather than the substance. Radio and TV interviews can also be
edited as well as "guided" (when live), such that the focus is diverted from the
overall sense and specific points that we wish to get across.
As John More noted, leveraging social media can be useful, and not just as a
work-around. When it comes to matters cyber, our local media tends to take its
leads from social media. Influencing mainstream media via the social networks
can not only be done with postings, but also (albeit somewhat more tediously) by
thoughtful intervention on the various comment threads. Mainstream media then
picks-up on those comments as a way of filling-out their articles, thereby
further disseminating our PoV.
Corporates (OTT Players) and Civil Society --
ISOC-PH currently has a single flat membership space that only accomodates
individual members. Thus instead of direct corporate funding, we've held
several co-presented fora where most of the logisistical burden and expenses
were carried by another org, industry or civil society. For our part we will
contribute to the content or substance of the forum, when our interests and
thrusts on a specific topic coincide.
Beyond events, continuing cross-sector engagement and cooperation also helps
when dealing with policy, legislative and regulatory authorities. We may have
neither the time or human resources to "cover all the bases" when dealing with
government, thus mutual assistance across sectors ensures that we are all better
able to get our points across. An additional benefit is that when government
sees something like a consensus across sectors, they are more likely to give
greater weight to that view on that particular subject.
Finally, while the OTT players' local (national) offices (if any) are indeed
often mere sales and PR offices, their regional offices may have a person who is
specifically assigned to policy issues. (Additionally, in the region, we have
an OTT org - the Asia Internet Coalition.) This may or may not translate into
direct funding, but they can provide other types of assistance.
2 cents,
WYn
On 5/21/2014 9:10 PM, Alejandro Pisanty wrote:
> Hi,
>
> couple quick notes aiming to help (the last point is directed to Trustees and
> ISOC staff):
>
> 1. Regarding publicity for ISOC chapters. We can gain an interesting media
> presence at zero cost through interviews with the media. Our best experience in
> ISOC Mexico is to have several of our members available for interviews and on
> the other hand be very sparing in our partricipation; speak only on issues where
> we have something to say that adds to the public discussion with solid
> expertise. We do not fear having somewhat dissenting opinions among the members
> in these public statements as long as they are sound and knowledgeable. We are
> very careful not to take sides with political parties and large forces like telcos.
>
> 2. Establishing the expertise of an ISOC chapter on Internet issues takes time
> and energy. Members who say write a regular column in newspapers or specialized
> media, who blog, who tweet, who make use of Facebook, etc. all contribute, and
> pointing generously to each other's work is important.
>
> 3. We often get very good results without issuing official ISOC statements. This
> policy keeps us nimble and flexible and is proportional to our combination of
> strengths and weaknesses. Also all of the above is premised upon getting results
> (policies established or changed) for society, not only for ourselves. This will
> be specific for every chapter.
>
> 4. A special statement on funding by companies: companies like Cisco, Google,
> Microsoft, etc. generously provide funds to ISOC global... but not, never, in
> any way, to chapters. The local subsidiaries in developing and
> intermediate-development countries are mostly sales offices and they don't have
> funds for supporting good causes. In some countries this is changing a very
> little bit through requirements for Corporate Social Rresponsibility (CSR) and
> in some countries the companies may have some funds to spend on event
> soponsorship and other PR (public-relations) activities. That budget tends to be
> in the pocket for marketing and is spent according to its contribution to sales.
>
> We have not been able to leverage ISOC's global and HQ (headquarters, main
> office) clout to convince these companies to assign some budgets to support
> activities globally. ISOC top management would do all of us a big favor if you
> tried once again. Some Trustees and all members of the Advisory Council are in
> these companies. A report of what you tried and what you got, or why the attempt
> failed, would be extremely useful for us chapters people in our negotiations
> locally.
>
> Yours,
>
> Alejandro Pisanty
>
>
> On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 6:11 AM, Charles Oloo <oloo6382 at gmail.com
> <mailto:oloo6382 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>> Engaging local stakeholders is done at various levels and functions
>> depending on activity or event. The more engagement we have the more we
>> raise ISOC profile and visibility. In most cases, the involvement of the
>> media is paramount if at all one has to reach a wider audience.
> Charles,
>
> Yes. I agree. Could you share with us some the engagements you have carried
> out or planning to do so. Also, how you are engaging the media?
>
> So far since getting recognition we have successfully undertaken several
> activities, mostly funded by the ISOC grant. These are internet Governance
> forums, Chapter launch and IPV6 Day. The other project that gave as a little
> milage was the ICT Swahili translation wiki project
> http://dcom.co.ke/index.php?title=Main_Page that UNESCO supported.
>
> We are currently planning to hold the national IG forum early July. Snce we
> do not have organizational members at the moment, we will entirely rely on
> the 2000$ event funding, which might not be enough to cater for all the
> anticipated expenses. The WG is working at ways of engaging other
> stakeholders for extra support. Participation to this years forum is
> expected to be double last years, looking at the interest from members and
> the strategies being adopted by the organizing team.
>
> On media, publicity is paramount, and if we need to reach wide coverage,
> adequate resources to to enable advertising is necessary.
>
> The IGF ambassadors program is separate from chapter funding. Not sure about
> its status in 2014.
> What I was referring to here is the local Internet Governance Forum that we
> are organizing in July. This is the second time we are hosting the local IGF
> forum. If we cannot get adequate financial support, then we might not even
> send a team to the East African IGF scheduled for Dar es Salaam Tanzania in
> August were we are supposed to present our cases, or even the African IGF to
> be held in Nigeria, leave alone the global IGF.
>
> IGFs notwithstanding, we are also supposed to undertake other local events
> like campus outreach activities as well as engage stakeholders by holding
> workshops to address current burning issues like cyber security, among others.
>
> Although we have plans to approach companies such as Google, Cisco and
> Microsoft among others for support, but we are not sure of the outcomes.
>
> Though we have ambitious plans, but we are taking the activities in phases
> as resources become available, based on priority.
>
> The other handicap is administrative costs, especially internet costs as
> most of volunteers work from home. Having volunteered for the Chapter for
> the last three years, I have felt it. The need to provide own resources and
> time for things to move. In our midst also are volunteers, unemployed
> college students, with passion but require some kind of support to make a
> contribution.
>
> Nevertheless, we are looking at various strategies to raise funds for
> activities, especially for long-term sustainability. One such idea is having
> an annual event that brings all ICT players together, in which we could
> raise funds and resources to run for a year, in the process like the one for
> ISOC Netherlands. But such a momentous task requires good planning and
> engagement which we are still trying.
>
> Gihan, That is a brief of our current situation.
>
> Regards
> Charles Oloo
> Chair / President
> Internet Society Kenya Chapter
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 12:07 PM, O.C.Omar <cheickomar at gmail.com
> <mailto:cheickomar at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hi Gabriel,
> I'm from ISoc Burkina Faso Chapter which has just been approved weeks
> ago. I'm glad to see the question of financial assistance is discussed.
> We had a meeting of our local board last night and we discussed how to
> get our members involved and how to develop our own strategy to populate
> resources. For example, some members can't pay the us$28/anum membership
> fees. We are allowing them to pay it monthly. Of course this will not
> cover our administrative expenditure or activities to be done. But
> that's a beginning.
> Luckily, we have been introduced to past workshops resources and other
> material from Isoc that we need to use for our chapter, but we need to
> stick also to our environment. Africa is not a country, African
> countries are not the same. Most of them share a lot but they have
> several differences as well. In Burkina Faso we need to find strategies
> locally to raise funds. We don't always have to wait for sponsors even
> if their help is crucial. I'm afraid this is too common in several areas
> in Africa to always ask or expect for help. Financially speaking. This
> is my opinion and this is why personally I never wait for help before
> starting to do what I want to do. And this, I came to Isoc chapter
> Burkina Faso to share it as I'm confident it will help our Chapter on
> our Mission. In our board, we've got the chance to be discussing a lot
> together for more than a year, to share ideas about how to do things by
> ourselves before we ask for support/help. And some of our board members
> are pleased to give. Because we think as a new Chapter, we need to
> achieve few things before we can pretend to be helped on bigger projects
> locally.
>
> But, if Isoc is willing to help our new chapter with a "starter
> financial assistance", we are not going to refuse. That would
> significantly boost our debut on the ground. But we are not waiting for
> that to do what we have been waiting so long to do during the Chapter
> Recognition process.
>
> Regards
>
> O.C.Omar
> ISOC - Burkina Faso
> Tel. +226-70699999 <tel:%2B226-70699999>
>
>
> On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 4:30 AM, Gabriel Ramokotjo
> <gabrielramokotjo at gmail.com <mailto:gabrielramokotjo at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I'm gonna agree with Chris on this one.
>
> Chapters in developing countries need further assistance both
> financially and strengthening working relations with their
> respective Governments.
>
> Yes ISOC HQ leadership and staff are always there to provide support
> and I can speak from our position as ISOC-Gauteng, but a bit of
> financial assistance for new chapters to cover administration costs,
> will go a long way in helping the chapters to achieve their mandate.
>
> Regards,
> Gabriel
> ISOC - Gauteng
>
> G.M Ramokotjo
>
> On May 20, 2014 7:28 PM, "Alejandro Pisanty" <apisanty at gmail.com
> <mailto:apisanty at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Gihan,
>
> the $2,000 USD that Chris Mulola is mentioning are conditional
> upon events organized by the Chapter.
>
> I am sure the chapters community will be happy to engage, as we
> have always done, in providing you all sorts of information that
> is well known within and across the organization, but maybe it
> is more efficient that you collect it from staff, sitting
> Trustees and other sources?
>
> Yours,
>
> Alejandro Pisanty
>
>
> On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 12:21 PM, Gihan Dias <gihan at uom.lk
> <mailto:gihan at uom.lk>> wrote:
>
> Chris,
>
> Let me give our experience in Sri Lanka, which may - of
> course - differ from Rwanda or any other country.
>
> On 2014/05/18 ප.ව. 5:11, Chris Mulola wrote:
>
> -A chapter in a developed world whereby there is
> presence of these IT company giants.
>
> - And a chapter in a developing country whereby there is
> no such thing like Google's presence etc. and that all
> the other international organizations, present in those
> countries, have only the mandate to help governments
> that host them.
>
> Google (and other similar companies) now have offices in
> many countries. Even if they have no office in Rwanda, they
> probably have local companies marketing their products (such
> as mail) and usually part of their budgets are earmarked for
> education, etc. We have got assistance from Intel and
> Microsoft for projects. Of course, ISoc, and the chapter
> leaders, need to establish a track record before people will
> give large amounts of money, but it has not been difficult
> to get like $500-$1000.
>
>
> Those organizations will have a mission to please these
> governments because that is what their job is -
> diplomacy and international affairs. And chapters will
> not get significant support from them like they are most
> of the times politically-oriented.
>
> One strategy may be to tap into some existing programme, and
> try to get your work done under that banner (but may not
> always work).
>
>
> I have been raising funds and fighting for support for
> more than 3 years and i know what i am talking about.
>
> Yes. I can understand your point.
>
>
> Just recently, i was challenged by a question following
> some reports of what ISOC global pays as taxes on
> salaries to i dont know remember which organization..
> and the question was like this:
>
> "I wonder how your organization can be ignoring you by
> giving you $2000 annual support and spend more than
> 12millions US dollars (please check ISOC tax reports
> for the exact figure, it is about that) on taxes? The
> money you are given cannot even cover your
> administration needs let alone raise your visibility."
>
> Could you let me have more details on this? I am not
> familiar with ISoc's accounts.
>
>
> If given the power there is something that i would like
> to change in the way that isoc operates, i mean the
> working relationships between
> governments-isocChapters-__isocGlobal.
>
> I hope that together we can achieve this.
>
> I guess the situation will be slightly different in
> countries whereby the Isoc people are the ones that
> built the internet up along with their gover ments,
> here they will continue to have a strong say. Case for
> Older chapters i must say.
>
> Even if the chapter is new, we should try to get some of the
> people who have built, and are running, the networks,
> services, etc. in the ISoc chapter. It is only then that
> people will take the chapter seriously.
>
> I believe this will change one day, but it will not, if
> we continue to put these chapters in the same basket and
> treat them the same way, forgetting that they should be
> categorized, and given different kinds of support. Just
> as an example..... Not $2000 for a chapter in New York
> or Colorado or Tokyo and the same $2000 for another one
> in Uganda or Burundi.
>
> Actually, $2000 will not go far in New York, but may pay for
> a full time person for a year in a developing country. So
> it's not too bad.
> My suggestion is to first spend the $2000, show some very
> good results, and then keep going.
>
> Regards,
>
> Gihan
>
> _________________________________________________
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