[Chapter-delegates] What should ISOC's future goals be? How can we work toward achieving them as ISOC Chapters?

[Nazar K Nicholas]

Hi Alan,

The two paragraphs of your thread has captured the reality of things as
they currently are. From where I sit, and If I am to use this example, you
are where you stay. That if you live, stay, walk,sleep, bath,eat and
interact in a place perfumed with the yellow roses, when you come out you
will smell just that! Thus ISOC smells US-centric because that is where it
was born and raised. It can seldom be different because it is part of the
culture

I think with the outstanding work and reputation of Internet Society as a
global "Internet" leader, it has earned it a space to rebrand as a
diplomatic organization like the likes of UNDP, UNICEF, WTO etc. Maybe that
can rid it of the US-centric style of managing and running things.

On the issue of ISOC and ISOC Foundation acting like charity for Non US
organizations. This is up for debate. There has been some changes on for
example on the way you apply for beyond the net small grant, not sure
about beyond
the net Large grant. On the net small, that  Tanzania Chapter appliedd
recently from ISOC Foundation, the application has been made a lot thinner,
less stringent ! They coming down to almost zero-state of chapters feeling
as though they are applying for a grant from the Ford Foundation. On the
other hand, I see issues with the scope of the ISOC Foundation's work. But
what is the original purpose of establishing the ISOC foundation? To
advance the mission and core work of ISOC? Or be all over the place just
like other foundations? If you go to the foundation's website reads its
mission and contrast/compare with the conditions for applying for a
$500,000 grant in SCILLS program ( see
https://www.isocfoundation.org/grant-programme/scills-grant-programme/ )
you will see things like climate change, entrepreneurship, agriculture,
etc. If you read between lines you will realize that, although advancing
the Internet is mentioned in the mix, it is not the main subject. It is not
the real meat! Is this the main or core function of ISOC?  This is in
fact the intelligent departure from core ISOC's mission either by design or
by erroneous US-centric thinking! Do not get me wrong I am not against
spending money on climate action, agriculture, entrepreneurship, or
innovation. The issue is the core business activities of ISOC! That the
foundation needs to refocus its mind on the origin.  But what could be the
alternative to this?

I will give an example. Last year Tanzania Chapter applied for Beyond the
Net Large Grant from the foundation. We got "approved" for $30,000 to
establish a Public Internet and Innovation Hub or Digital Transformation
and Innovation Hub. The Hub is in its final stages to be open to the
underserved urban community with the following services;

   1. Community WiFi to the community.
   2. Integrated Digital Literacy to youth and women( Digital skills,
   entrepreneurship, The project will offer the following service
   3. Use of unlicensed radios to provide Internet access to 5 schools, 1
   health center, police station, primary court, 2 local government offices,
   and 1 vocational training college.
   4. Digital Community Library(local content+) and Resource Center.
   5. Innovation Space for Youth.
   6. ICT/S.T.E.M(E) for Girls Program to address Digital Gender Gap
   7. Online Public Health Education for Students
   8. Reproductive Health Digital Gateway/Portal
   9. IoT-based Solution for; (a)  to measure climate change parameters for
   action-driven climate education to students. To use data they collect
   through this solution for logical understanding as to why they should plant
   and grow trees (b) to use the solution to measure and monitor parameters
   like feed time, oxygen levels, water contamination etc, to improve quantity
   and quality of produce.
   10. Digitally enabled Health Checks Solution for Non Communicable
   Diseases.
   11. Digital and Non Digital Outlet for Government Services
   12. n...

This is what we can accomplish with the Hub- a spending of $30,000 by ISOC
Foundation. It can be replicated anywhere. As you can see the investment is
in its core activity( creating the Internet Infrastructure to provide
public WiFi and Internet access to public schools and public underserved
institutions like healthcare centers.  What our project demonstrates is
that the core infrastructure project such as this Hub can make other
secondary areas such as Entrepreneurship, Innovation, etc can actually sit
on top if. What this means then is that if ISOC decides to work with 100
chapters and raise $3 to invest in the core ISOC work such as this Hub, it
will go a long way addressing the issue of connecting the unconnected.
Diversification by the foundation to engage other sectors may sound good on
paper but when it comes to the heart of the matters; the running of their
program such as SCILLS make these grants a turf for the "Big League Boys"
and this cycle returns them to where the discussion is hinged at the
moment( ISOC being US-Centric and swimming in the same pool as Ford
Foundation.

Final view: Foundations in America,Europe and elsewhere normally have their
personal agenda and they normally have no constituencies to serve in the
world.  By this I mean they do not do something like chapters that have
associated around a common platform with focus on a global agenda. That is
why to get the Agenda through they prepare Grant Applications loaded with
conditions and criteria to favour their agenda. However the position of
ISOC Foundation in this kind of environment is different. The foundation
already has the constituencies to serve( the chapters) and it has the
global agenda " investing in Local Internet Infrastructure as the world's
resource- connecting the unconnected". I wonder why the ISOC Foundation has
to struggle to find new constituencies while they already have them(the
chapters)! Unless of course there is an agenda that we are unaware of or it
has simply begun to suffer from the Normal Western world Foundation
Syndrom(NWFS). I hope this helps. Full stop!

On Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 10:05 AM Alan Levin via Chapter-delegates <
chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

> Hi George, Veni,
>
> You are correct, it is NOT the interest of the Chapters to reply.
>
> It appears from Andrews reply that ISOC is, and always will be a USA
> centric organisation and the USA just has different laws to the rest of so
> it does not matter what we say.
>
> ISOC global is acting like a charity for non-USA organisations and it has
> been given the license by the global netizens. This is why ISOC-ZA split
> from Internet South Africa.
>
> I can also point out that we have an internet governance meltdown in my
> country. The .za domain name has ended the registry contract without a
> roadmap for a new registry operator and totally destabilised the cctld.
> Furthermore, as you know AfriNICs bank account has been frozen for months.
> When I asked ISOC global about this they said they will get "an action
> team" onto it...
>
> I am so sorry but you have failed to establish "trust" from my
> perspective. Noone will provide you with decent replies in such a state.
>
> Good Luck!
>
> Alan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 28, 2021 at 1:49 AM George Sadowsky via Chapter-delegates <
> chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>
>> Hello, All,
>>
>> I'm pleased that our initial mail on the above subject asking chapter
>> officers and members about their view of the future of ISOC is receiving a
>> good response.
>>
>> However it has come to our attention that at least some chapters are
>> holding back responses because some of the responses already provided and
>> copied to the entire chapters list have been responded to in ways that they
>> feel is inappropriate.  In addition, it is our experience that in some
>> cultures, responses may be muted for fear of offending recipients, however
>> unintended to provoke a negative response they may be.
>>
>> We want to hear from everyone, and there is an easy way to solve the
>> above problem.  When you respond to us with your chapter's and members'
>> opinions, simply write to only the two of us, and do not copy the chapter
>> list.  Our email addresses are:
>>
>>         <george.sadowsky at gmail.com>
>>         <mshabbirawan at gmail.com>
>>
>> If you want your opinions heard  ---  which we surely hope that you do
>> ---  but do not want to be identified publicly with them, just tell us
>> that.  If you have specific questions or concerns, write to either or both
>> or us, and we will help you in any way that we can.
>>
>> Please continue to share your opinions and suggestions with us.  They are
>> important.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> George Sadowsky
>> Muhammad Shabbir Awan
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>> _______________________________________________
> As an Internet Society Chapter Officer you are automatically subscribed
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