[Chapter-delegates] Chapter advice on live streaming

[Ted Hardie]

Hi Luis,

Thanks for your thoughts on this matter.  Some comments in-line.

On Sat, Sep 14, 2024 at 1:14 AM <drhipo at me.com> wrote:

> Dear Ted,
>
> Thanks for the notices regarding this matter of the Chapters. I agree with
> your explanation about the role of the Board of Trustees regarding
> overseeing rather than managing the Internet Society nor the Internet
> Society Foundation. However, the Board is responsible to monitor and update
> the Mission and every foundational aspect of ISOC. Such a responsibility is
> on the highest interest of the multiple stakeholders involved in the
> Internet Society. If I am wrong, please let me know who takes care of these
> principles ?
>
>
Let us remember that the Board exists due to the Incorporation of the
> Society in 1992. The 3rd Article of such an instrument states that the
> purpose of ISOC is to “ … To be a non-profit corporation (without capital
> stock), which shall be operated exclusively for educational, charitable and
> scientific purposes."
>
> Today I find in your mails that the Board responded to the ChAC (it is not
> clear if yet or when) that the transmission of events is not important or
> at least not part of the Communications Team plans,
>

That's not quite correct.  There is a set of events that have broad
participation in an interactive session.  For those, the live session is
the interactive session itself (e.g. a Zoom call or webinar), and the live
event transmission is thus covered by the interactive session being broadly
available.  There are also events which are closer to broadcasts.  For
those events, the Communications team's analysis showed that nearly all of
the consumers of the media were using the recorded sessions.  This
time-selection style consumption pattern is a common shift, and not unique
to ISOC.  As a result of this, the team moved the live streaming service to
a project basis rather than retainer basis.

None of that is intended to devalue the overall effort to transmit events;
it is intended to match the use of resources to the current consumption
patterns.  As noted in the message, there is continued analysis of these
patterns and if they change again, this will be revisited.

in addition to the secrecy of some email-lists is to be kept.
>

Again, this is not quite correct.  The board's understanding of this
situation is that the list was closed by the decision of the relevant
community, and it is our view that they can decide to open it again without
requiring board approval or action.  Since the message from the ChAC was a
request to the board to open it, it seems likely that they will do so now
that it is clear that they do not require board action, but it is up to the
ChAC to decide the matter.

These actions may preclude the access to information.
>
> As you may be aware, the educational and scientific activities heavily
> rely on access to information which is a Human Right recognized by Article
> 19 of the Universal Declaration issued by United Nations Assembly in 1948.
> Also, research and development infrastructures (RDI) have been recently
> recognized by the National Science Foundation in the United States as
> indispensable structure towards the advancement of science. The Internet
> and the “semantic web” have been recognized as part of such RDI. For a
> social scientist as you, the value of documental, oral or pictorial
> research is as valuable as the activities carried out by the IETF engineers
> and scientists. People in every chapter are researching on many issues
> related to the Internet not only those associated with high-tech or
> profitable. Their main research tool is the free and accesible information
> in the Internet including that available through streaming. All these
> informations constitute part of the so-called open knowledge networks. Any
> member of the Internet Society should not marginalize or -even worst-
> censor information due to the apparent lack of benefit.
>
> I wonder, what is ISOC doing under the oversee of the Board to achieve its
> fundamental purposes ? if actions such a sharing and giving access to
> knowledge are considered part of a communications plan, that has already
> excluded -with their available informatio-  access to realtime events;
> maybe they should also tell any member of ISOC what is worth reading,
> learning or researching. Or maybe every interested ISOC member should write
> a proposal to the Foundation to secure funding for these streaming
> activities with the risk of fragmenting it ? The value of ISOC Live is at
> least to provide organization of the information in a trustworthy mode from
> a single point.
>
> Is the People -as mentioned in our Strategic Plan- denied the right of
> access of what is being discussed elsewhere in the sphere of influence of
> the Internet Society at the time, place and pace of their convenience ? Or
> it is not important to fund chapters conceived (and properly requested)
> ideas even if they are cost and mission effective? Have we forgot the
> freedoms on the Internet embraced by our founding fathers ?
>
> Unfortunately, Education and Research are not the favorite activities of
> people thinking first in budgets, costs and expenses. I still believe we
> are not that kind of people; we value even the smallest effort to make the
> Internet (physical, virtual or abstract) accesible to anyone in this world.
> Without information, the Internet is useless.
>
>
It is always refreshing to see your passion for the mission of the society,
Luis.  I hope the answers above clarify that the information in the
sessions is available live and in recordings when they are participatory
and in recordings when they are broadcasts.  These recordings provide the
action to information that I believe you so feelingly reference.  On the
topic of access to list archives, the ChAC will have staff support to
consider the options available to them, and it is their decision whether or
how to open the list archives.  I am sure your colleagues have read and
considered your thoughts on this matter.

best regards,

Ted Hardie


>
> Best Regards,
>
>
> Luis Martínez*
> ISOC MX
>
> * In my personal capacity.
>
> Prof. Luis M Martínez Cervantes, PhD, MSc, BScEE, MIEE Professor and
> researcher Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico City
>
> On 13 Sep 2024 2:18 -0600, Ted Hardie via Chapter-delegates <
> chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org>, wrote:
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> One of the items in your recent advice to the board was a request that the
> "ISOC funding for the ISOC.LIVE video production, editing, and archiving
> services should be reinstated, as well as ISOC.LIVE should be financially
> supported by ISOC on an ongoing basis."
>
> The board's role here is to set the direction for the organization by
> establishing strategic goals; the details of the communication plan are a
> part of the staff execution of those goals.  During the budget analysis of
> 2023, the communications team analyzed the effectiveness of specific
> streaming approaches and found that community engagement was driven
> primarily by on-demand viewing.  This matches a broader shift common to
> mainstream programming.  As a result of this analysis, the communications
> plan shifted away from a retainer-based contract for live streaming to a
> project-based funding model for future work.
>
> This was a staff management decision, taken with due care and analysis.
> The board's role is to assess whether the overall communications plan is
> effective in meeting the strategic goals; it does not direct the staff to
> use specific contract types or contractors.  If the needs of the
> communications plan change again to require live streaming on a full-time
> basis, the board is confident that the staff will issue the appropriate RFP
> and conduct the appropriate analysis of the submissions.
>
> The project-based funding model remains available, and chapters may, of
> course, fund specific live streaming events using chapter funds or Beyond
> The Net grants.  Any analysis of the effectiveness of those live streaming
> events would be valuable data for any future considerations of the
> engagement model.
>
> The board thanks the ChaC for its attention to the communications plan,
> and we look forward to continued discussion of how to engage the broader
> community in the mission of the society.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ted Hardie
> for the Board
>
>
>
>
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