[Chapter-delegates] Request that board member Sunday discuss forming a group to review the chapter proposals

[Dave Burstein]

Gonzalo and folk

As most of you know, last spring a proposal was made to allocate 3% of the
ISOC budget for the chapters to spend on their activities. Depending on the
allocation formula, that would be $15,000-$50,000 per active chapter.
Careful review to avoid fraud was included.

I believe the majority of the board was supportive and one board member
said he was confident things would be approved after the chapters committee
developed a concrete proposal. Instead, staff has chosen another path.

It's time for those on the board to set policy. The staff proposal ignores
the primary points and instead suggests spending $500,000 on branding is
the best way to help the chapters. The staff proposal will soon be public,
I'm told. The differences will be very clear.

The elephant in the room, of course, is that most ISOC chapters are in the
Global South, as is most of the board. Almost all policies are made by
senior staff, almost all in the Global North and strongly supportive of the
"DC Consensus." I can provide several clear examples of ISOC opposing Group
of 77 proposals strongly supported by the African and Asians because they
would lower the price of Internet access. (Previously discussed at ISOC
events.)

I spend time on ISOC because I think we can deliver concrete progress on
the Internet for All. I don't think I'm alone in believing our $30M PIR
subsidy can be far more effectively used. I believe the chapters will
demonstrative that, if they had support.

Frankly, the people on the ground in Africa I've met have a far clearer
understanding of what's needed than D.C. lawyers and economists. I'm on a
U.S. State Department committee, and I'm amazed how in DC ideology takes
precedence over knowledge. We can and should bring the public interest
issues to the forefront. We haven't.

So I request the board members informally begin looking closely at the
chapters proposal, with a possibility of forming a group to show respect
for the opinions of the chapters.

The rest is commentary. I've been up almost 24 hours working on this and am
fading. If my comments are unclear, please request clarification from me or
the members of the chapter committee.

I'll be making concrete proposals after I get some sleep and catch up on
the technology reporting I do for a living. In particular, we should change
the symbolic meaning of some old charter rules and actively reach out to
those not well represented.

In particular, nearly 1/3rd of the Internet is now Chinese. Both Africa and
India will soon have more Internet users than the U.S.

Any global policy is likely ineffective unless a way is found to
incorporate this missing third of the Internet in decisions.

How can ISOC build those bridges? Many of us, including Bob Kahn and Vint
Cerf, have been personally working on this

Ideas needed.

Dave Burstein
-- 
Editor, Fast Net News, 5GW 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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