[Chapter-delegates] 3 proposals worth adopting at the Chapters' Committee meeting

Mon May 9 17:04:19 PDT 2016

Dear Avri, Rudi

I second Dave´s motion to discuss these (and other ideas) as an agenda 
point for the next ChAC call on May 17 if I remember right.

See you then

Carlos Raúl Gutiérrez
+506 8837 7176
Skype: carlos.raulg
Current UTC offset: -6.00 (Costa Rica)
On 9 May 2016, at 17:45, Dave Burstein wrote:

> Avri, committee members and other folk
>
> I brought these up at the board meeting and some people were very
> encouraging, live and in private notes after.
>
> The Chapter Committee Charter asks for proposals to be discussed in
> advance, so I want to get this moving.  Avri, if there's a better way 
> to
> discuss what the board should be doing, do let me know.
>
> Please do comment, especially if you disagree. Improvements welcome. 
> I'm
> just in this to improve Internet policy, which is where this is coming 
> from.
>
> Everybody in ISOC, I believe including Kathy Brown, wants a
> multistakeholder organization. Brown has done a good job letting 
> people
> express opinions, but power remains centralized in the staff.
>
> I think it's time to move, with these or similar measures.
>
> 1) That ISOC reallocate a relatively modest amount, say 3% of the 
> budget,
> for the chapters to allocate at their discretion.
>
> *The guideline would be to spend the money as ISOC is currently 
> spending
> funds on chapter support: events, expenses to F2F events, web sites,
> necessary fees for non-profit status, ... This would probably actually 
> save
> money. A third of the chapter money goes to overhead.*
>
>
> *It should be accompanied by serious but easy to follow rules
> on accountability.  *
>
> *No disrespect to Raul or Joyce, but it's demeaning to have to ask
> headquarters for every small expense. It also slows things up. I'm
> disappointed we haven't heard from Kathy Brown on how to do this, 
> given the
> sentiment at the board.*
>
> 2) That staff discuss with the relevant chapters any major policy move 
> or
> alliance, *before the policy is decided.* (Unless time is very short.)
>
> *This is inspired by several incidents in Latin America and Africa 
> where
> the chapters complained that ISOC was talking to their government and 
> they
> were never informed. That isn't the way a democratic, 
> multi-stakeholder
> organization should work.*
>
> *This could be as simple as a note to the list about what's up and
> follow-up to responses. It's not burdensome. I carefully said 
> "discuss," so
> as not to raise the issue of who makes decisions in ISOC. I wanted
> something easy to agree to.*
>
> 3) That ISOC encourage *experienced* members to help represent ISOC at
> international events, including accepting the ITU Secretary-General's
> invitation to our CEO to send many of our members to ITU events.
>
> *We have numerous former board members and world class engineers who 
> would
> be very valuable bringing the public interest to the forefront. I
> underlined experienced to make clear this is not an open invitation to
> everyone.*
>
> *Currently, ISOC is not represented at the majority of meetings that
> determine the future nature of the Internet. We don't have enough 
> staff to
> cover even most of the ITU events, much less the even more important 
> fora
> where the future design of wireless networks is mostly determined. *
>
> *3GPP, where hundreds of companies come together to set wireless 
> standards,
> has essentially no public representation. Big decisions are made, like
> whether telephone companies take over half the WiFi spectrum. (LTE-U, 
> LAA) *
>
> *Other decisions at 3GPP determine things like the level of royalties 
> on
> cellphones. That's crucial, because inexpensive cellphones are what 
> will
> connect the next three billion. Royalties can now be more expensive 
> than
> the total cost of building the phone. Almost no one from Africa, South 
> Asia
> or poor countries has much of a voice at 3GPP. *
>
> *Vint Cerf, one of our founders, said at Columbia that 3GPP should 
> become
> multi-stakeholder. Let's make that so. Also important are groups that 
> set
> the WiFi standards and many others.*
>
> *As Secretary-General Toure said at the plenipot, ISOC is a member and 
> can
> send as many people as we choose. We're not usually represented at the 
> ITU
> standards sessions, where most of the important decisions are made. 
> Current
> in ITU working groups are issues of security (several), child online
> protection, the design of next generation networks, whether countries 
> can
> require all data to be stored locally and many more. We should be 
> there and
> we never could afford to send many paid staff. *
>
> *The big, controversial ITU WCIT would have been very different if 
> ISOC had
> done what the U.S. gov did and brought 104 people dedicated to the 
> public
> interest. (Even the U.S. government couldn't afford to send that many. 
> Most
> members of the delegation were private, mostly corporate.) The 104
> Americans systematically connected with the 150 participating 
> countries,
> keeping them constantly informed of the U.S. position and reporting 
> back to
> the U.S. delegation what they learned.*
>
> *Sally Wentworth is a good lobbyist and did what she could, but ISOC 
> could
> have accomplished much more with many members attending. In 
> particular, our
> members from the developing world could connect with their own 
> nation's
> delegation. *
>
> *Supporting the IETF and IGF is good, but we could multiply our impact 
> with
> a broader representation.*
> *------------------------------*
>
> All the above is about making ISOC the "bottons-up multistakeholder"
> organization we want to be. My particular suggestions may or may not 
> be
> right but I think almost all of us agree on the general ideas.
>
> Frankly, I think are paid staff should be leading the effort to live 
> up to
> our principles. Unfortunately, it's very hard for any bureaucracy to 
> share
> power.  So the chapters have to take the lead.
>
> The Internet Society can make a real difference and is worth fighting 
> for.
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
> *(Many members, including the U.S., send dozens.) *
>
> *Brown and Wentworth are fine lobbyists  *
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Editor, Fast Net News, Net Policy News and DSL Prime
> Author with Jennie Bourne  DSL (Wiley) and Web Video: Making It Great,
> Getting It Noticed (Peachpit)
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