[Chapter-delegates] Application to form the Internet Society Chapter on Internet of Food

Fri Apr 3 12:44:00 PDT 2015

Hi all. Forgive my lateness in participating, I've been somewhat ...
distracted ... this month.

But this topic is of significant interest to me.

Sometime back, when working on the Chapter Advisory Council charter, John
More and I already had quite the extensive discussion on this topic. Being
rather newish to ISOC, I was inquiring about the origins of the
Interplanetary Networking and Special Needs Chapters. They seemed, to me,
incongruous with the general nature of Chapters which are geographically
based. While one could have an affinity, interest, or even passion for
other locations, one (generally) was located in realm of a single
geographically based chapter. In other bodies in which I have participated,
there has been the dual concept of geographical groups (often called
Chapters or Locals) and subject-based groupings (which in many instances
are known as Special Interest Groups (or SIGs). (Within ICANN At-Large, the
equivalents of the geographical and subject groupings are RALOs and Working
Groups respectively.)

There are often significant structural differences between Chapters and
SIGs:

   - Chapters are intended to be very culturally-specific, tuned to the
   mores, languages and institutions of the local environment except for
   interactions with other Chapters (and in our case with ISOC Central). They
   are focused to communicate with the local public and (when applicable)
   advocate the group's interest within local political structures.

   - SIGs, on the other hand, are global in nature (to the extent generally
   reflected by its membership). They tend to standardize on a single language
   (usually English, for better or worse) for their communications, however
   the commonly embed the topic-specific jargon that might be just as strange
   to an outsider as a foreign language. Focused on specific interest, each
   SIG provides a global forum and tends to focus on research and education
   rather than political advocacy.

   - When Chapters and SIGs are at their best working together, the SIGs
   develop policy and education on topics of global interest which are then
   localised and communicated (to the public, Internet community, policy
   makers, etc as required) using locally-relevant language and methods.
   Meanwhile, Chapters use local events and topical issues to help increase
   SIG membership (which often helps then grow themselves too).

So in this sense I think of Chapters as vertical and SIGs as horizontal,
not only usefully complementary but (IMO) necessary. It's the best
embodiment of ISOC's service to both parts of the phrase "think global, act
local".

In addition to "Interplanetary Networking" and "Disability and Special
Needs" (which are really functioning as SIGs though chartered as Chapters)
and "the Internet of Food", I could easily see a number  of other SIGs that
might attract attention. Some, such as "ISOC Francophonie
<http://www.isoc-francophonie.org/>" have already been envisioned but not
yet able to find an appropriate place in the current infrastructure.  I
myself would have a very high interest in an "ICT for Development" SIG, and
I'm sure than many of you can think of others.

SIGs, IMO, should not have such strict rules for formation (or dissolution)
as Chapters. If a minimum number of people are interested, to me, that's
enough to set up a mailing list and an entry in a directory for interested
members so long as they adhere to ISOC goals and principals. In fact, I
personally would extend SIG participation to organizational members that
share common cause with appropriate SIGs.

Arguably, one of the stumbling blocks so far has been the lack of
structures within ISOC for accommodating SIGs. That will chance once the
Chapter Advisory Council charter is approved, for the CAC will have the
ability to create subgroups. This process, to me, can be the perfect method
for maintaining a number of SIGs which are independent, yet work with the
Chapters to further advance their own goals. And that is why John and I
were having this discussion in the first place, many months ago.

I welcome the support of the SIG concept and hope it is advanced. It has
the potential to help turn individuals' personal passion into ISOC's global
action.

- Evan

On 3 April 2015 at 13:47, <apisanty at gmail.com> wrote:

> Vint,
>
> While there will still be opportunities for gaming the system, this seems
> to be the way forward.
>
> Let's see that staff proposal - listening, as has been said, to other
> voices; not the least, the Board of Trustees, esp in our case those elected
> by the Chapters. And, IMO, get the SIGs in motion so we can see form follow
> function.
>
> Yours,
>
> Alejandro Pisanty
> Enviado desde/Sent from BlackBerry®
>
> ! !! !!! !!!!
>
>      Dr. Alejandro Pisanty
> UNAM, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Mexico DF Mexico
> Blog: http://pisanty.blogspot.com
> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pisanty
> Unete al grupo UNAM en LinkedIn,
> http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/22285/4A106C0C8614
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/apisanty
> ---->> Unete a ISOC Mexico, http://www.isoc.org
> .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vint Cerf <vint at google.com>
> Sender: "Chapter-delegates" <chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org>Date:
> Fri, 3 Apr 2015 13:25:04
> To: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond<ocl at gih.com>
> Cc: Chapter Delegates<chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>
> Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] Application to form the Internet Society
>  Chapter on Internet of Food
>
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-- 
Evan Leibovitch
Toronto Canada

Em: evan at telly dot org
Sk: evanleibovitch
Tw: el56
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