[Chapter-delegates] IMPORTANT: vote from Chapter Advisory Council - please make sure you vote!

[Andrew Sullivan]

Hi,

On Tue, Jun 25, 2024 at 12:27:18AM +0000, Christopher Hawker wrote:
>
>This does not, of course, reflect the costs on the Internet Society staff side of this matter
>Is ISOC willing to share the (aggregated) costs that are being referred to here?
>

We don't track staff time that way, so I don't think we can, but it definitely takes time.  Nevertheless, as I said, I think that it is unquestionable that the service is inexpensive for the product.  The decision we made did not question whether the output was of high quality, but instead was making a choice about whether to spend funds on it given the fairly tiny viewership of the livestreams.

>There are a vast number of people (globally) that rely on this function for accessing content and it's a shame that "management" don't see this.

We don't see it because the viewer numbers simply don't back up the claim.  It's something people keep _saying_, but we can see that it is false based on actual views of the livestreams.

>Could you (or someone else with the relevant information) explain how ISOC comes to the conclusion that there is an insufficient ROI to justify the expense and time spent on ISOC LIVE?

Yes.  The viewership is low (some streams have 0 views).  People don't watch content this way any more, it seems, and therefore we concluded that we would not renew the contract.

>What evidence did ISOC use to make that determination? ISOC LIVE is so much more than just "livestreaming" so I would like to know and this information MUST be made public.
>

We ended support for the livestreaming service.  It turns out that the person providing that service is using it as part of the workflow for other things, and that therefore those other things get affected, but we ended the funding for one specific activity.  We had a look at what else we provide and concluded that there are alternatives available, and that therefore it would be correct to stop supporting this service.  That is all I am willing to say on this mailing list about the situation with one particular vendor.

>Perhaps management should run a "what if" analysis and say "Ok, if this was to go ahead and we were directed to fund it, where could we source the funding from?" and present this to the community then say "Ok, if we do this X it will impact Y"

That is not how the Internet Society makes its budgets and it is simply not a way that we can start doing so.  _Every_ activity would be subject to this very process, and you simply cannot make an organization's budget with 100,000 of your closest friends and colleagues. 

>Sorry Andrew, but it's actually not - Olivier is arguing for the reinstatement of funding for ISOC LIVE.

What I described is exactly what this case is.  Olivier is saying that _this_ project is the one that needs funding, and it's only this tiny amount in this huge budget and so can't you evil CEO guy just fund it?  But someone else has a strong feeling about some _other_ funding decision we need to make, and so on and so forth, and soon it is impossible to make any choices because the whole community has a line-item veto on the entire budget.  Like it or not, the Internet Society is a mission-driven organization, not a member-controlled one.  It is my responsibility as long as I am employed in this job to make these choices, and I recognize that I will not always make everyone happy with the choices I make.  But I will make them, and I have made one in this case.  I have considered carefully the implications and the arguments of the community, and and indeed re-considered them since the topic came up on this list, and I remain convinced that the decision as it stands was the right one.

>For Vint to commit to funding ISOC LIVE in the absence of funding from ISOC, should clearly demonstrate there's a need for this.

It seems to me that it demonstrates that Vint thinks it is worth funding for this period.  I don't think it demonstrates need for a livestreaming service, which would be best demonstrated by use of those streams (which use seems not to be happening).

Best regards,

A

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