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

Fri Apr 3 13:41:41 PDT 2015

Dear Joyce and friends,

I wish to also agree with Evan about the value of this initiative as
an SIG, which would have a complementary role to that of chapters. In
fact, I find that chapters could themselves be partners with SIGs and
supplement their work in various ways. For example, chapters could
take ideas emerging from SIGs to implement in their communities. That
is exactly what 'think global act local' means. While SIGs may not
have voting power or geographical representation, they would still
have a valuable contributions through their policy, research, advocacy
and other activities.

The power of chapters mainly lies in direct impact on and bringing the
voice of local communities. On the other hand, SIGs deal with specific
issues that are of global nature that may not necessarily be linked to
a particular country or region. Just like any global initiative, an
SIG needs on-the-ground reliable individuals to help bring discussions
to the local level across the globe.

That's why in my view, ISOC should give this initiative a license as
an SIG and encourage it to use the vast geographical coverage that
chapters provide. It would be a waste of resources if SIGs work in
silos without communicating with end users through chapters.

Best.

Walid Al-Saqaf
ISOC-Yemen

On Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 10:19 PM, Abdeldjalil Bachar Bong
<abdeldjalil.bachar at gmail.com> wrote:
> +1 Evan je partage entièrement  votre point de vue.
>
> Cordialement
> ---------------------------------
> ABDELDJALIL BACHAR BONG
>
> DGA & Co-Fondateur de ZIYARA
> E-mail:bachar at ziyara.td
> http://www.ziyara.td
> https://twitter.com/bacharbong
> Tél:0023566274284
> N'djaména(Tchad)
>
> |AFRINIC Fellow|ISOC CHAD Member|
>
> Le 3 avr. 2015 20:44, "Evan Leibovitch" <evan at telly.org> a écrit :
>>
>> 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" 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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>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> to this list, which is regularly synchronized with the Internet Society
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