[Chapter-delegates] [Internet Policy] Action Plan 2021 - Fwd: Our Commitment to the Internet / Notre engagement en matière d’Internet / Nuestro Compromiso con Internet

[Andrew Sullivan]

Hi,

On Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 12:27:22PM +0000, Christian de Larrinaga wrote:
>
>Starting from the bottom and specifically chapters. This document sets
>out a series of ambitions and regionalises those into distinct
>activities. But no mention is made in the Action plan on specific
>measures relating to chapters to implement or support those activities.

We can't really do that, because Chapters are independent organizations.  We're not the boss of them, so we can't establish work for them to do.  The staff hopes that we make the work attractive for Chapters to organize additional work along with these things, and it is my desire over time that the Internet Society staff will, when preparing proposals for projects[*], will identify Chapters who want to be participants in those projects as well.  But we can't say, "Here's what the role of the Chapters is in this project," because we do not control what Chapters wish to do.

([*] By the way, you may recall that last year there was more consultation on the development of projects than in 2020.  That is because of COVID: we announced early in the year that we would restrict ourselves to the things that had already been selected for 2020 as the areas where we'd make commitments for 2021.  That way the time that would have been used for planning new things for 2021 could be recovered to deal with adjusting 2020 plans in light of the new realities.  I don't expect the same to be true in 2021.)

>That is I don't see the joins if any are intended between the ISOC activities in the Action plan
>with those of chapters. How can Chapters respond, engage, as well as contribute
>to future plans in the Action plan and the key projects being developed is perhaps
>a clearer way to summarise the question?

The planning of future efforts starts up early in the year.  But also, I hope that people who have ideas for things will raise them early so that they can get weighed during the preparatory phases in planning.

>From the "mid" layer. Maybe this is in fact a symptom of the "bottom
>layer" I mention above. Chapters and possibly other constituent parts of
>the community are not very aware or engaged in ISOC projects. I like
>Fred was not aware of what Mat Ford is now up to with the new
>measurement project. (Great stuff!) I suppose there is no urgent reason
>for me to be actively aware.

I'm unsure what to do about this.  We publish these plans every year, and 2020's had a bunch of concrete measures in it, and we have regular community updates and interactions and so on about these things too.  I think we are trying pretty hard to keep the community informed about what efforts the Internet Society is pressing forward on.  (The measurement project, however, didn't have anything to be aware of until it was turned on: there's nothing to do with a website that isn't on the Internet yet :) )  It is possible that there are people in the Chapters community who sort of tuned out of messages from the Internet Society for some reason.  To me, that just shows that we have to produce things that are relevant and focussed.  That has been part of the reason we've been attempting to do fewer things at the same time, so that each one can be done well and so that people are not overwhelmed with information about too many things at once.

>But on a very simple level it is not possible to plan ahead or even write up
>a page or link on a chapter information network service to usefully
>engage local communities in such great ideas if one does not know  or
>one has no planning or "hooks" with those projects to make a useful contribution.

Every Internet Society project has a page: if you go to https://www.internetsociety.org/, the menu item "What we're doing" has a rollover with a page for every project we have.  The Internet Society has staff whose whole job is about interfacing with Chapters and trying to support them in pursuing the Vision.  I'll be sure to point them at this thread because I imagine you have some specific things you'd like by way of support here, and it's probably easier to get that out in detail.

>Looking at the "top" layer.
>
>There is a dotted line fiduciary duty of constituent parties
>such as trustees or board members of electors of ISOC trustees or organisations promoting ISOC
>activities to show some basic due diligence that ISOC is well governed.

I don't understand what a "dotted line fiduciary duty" is.  The Board does indeed have a fiduciary duty to the organization and to see to the governance, which is why the Action Plan is presented to the Board for their approval.  I made that presentation as part of a recent meeting of the Trustees, and that meeting was open to observers (and has been posted online for people to see, if you like: https://www.internetsociety.org/board-of-trustees/meetings/154/).  The responsibility of the appointing communities to evaluate the performance of the Board is in fact part of the reason those open sessions happen and why they're posted for review by the community and so on.

>For that to happen needs a degree of information and understanding of how
>ISOC is being governed. In particular how the relationships and finance
>flows and decision responsibilities are working between the various
>moving parts. The main ones are now PIR, ISOC and the ISOC
>Foundation. Maybe there are others too? In anycase
>
>To give a very basic example. Looking at ISOC's plan the figures might
>imply a question whether PIR has divided
>up its revenue contributions between ISOC and the Foundation? or is it
>still flowing to ISOC directly which then allocates it onwards?

Ah.  Well, this I can answer in general.  PIR is a non-profit supporting organization of the Internet Society, and its incorporation (and 501(c)(3) status determination) establish what it is supposed to do.  A significant part of that is to support the charitable mission of the Internet Society.  (You can see this in PIR's IRS filings, which are available from the PIR site.)  The Internet Society Foundation is also a supporting organization of the Internet Society, and it exists in effect only to advance the Internet Society's purposes.  (You can see this also in the Foundation's IRS filings, which are on the Foundation's site.)  Since the Boards of the Foundation and the Internet Society are currently the same, the plans of ISOC and the Foundation are approved by the same people and are in accord.  The precise flow of money from PIR (i.e. whether it goes to the Internet Society or the Foundation) is an operational matter of accounting, and there isn't a firm rule that I could outline.  But you can see the income of each organization on its Form 990 as published on our respective websites.

>Also I cannot be sure if there are gaps in the Action plan?

I'm sure there are!  The Internet is under a lot of pressure and there's always more to do.  These are the actions we think we can accomplish now, and to which you can hold us to account at the end of 2021.  They're certainly not everything that is needed in respect of the Internet.

>A hugely significant and most welcome grant has just been awarded by ISOC to the IETF. But I
>don't see that mentioned in the Action plan or its budget.

The Internet Society Trustees agreed to fund the IETF's annual budget, and have also agreed to match fundraising by the IETF.  The funds are coming from the Foundation, yes.

>Indeed that rather dwarfs the $10m allocation in the 2021 budget to
>other items.

That is comparing 1 year to 6 years, however.

>Maybe project info might have a paragraph or a section of refs with
>links to those entities and contacts ready to be mentioned in chapters
>own materials for their local communities?

I am not sure we can do that in the Action Plan, because it's a document for our purposes and normally when organizations are mentioning each other it's important to do it in a joint way.  We couldn't possibly synchronize the AP publication with all the organizations we work with.  But maybe there is another way to make clearer with whom we are working and how.  There's significant work planned for our communications channels in 2021, so I'll put this in the hopper.  Thanks.

Best regards,

A
-- 
Andrew Sullivan
President & CEO, Internet Society
sullivan at isoc.org
+1 416 731 1261