<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Sunday 16 July 2017 07:08 PM, James
Gannon wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:E9E2F49E-49F1-424A-B79C-006767EA7668@cyberinvasion.net">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<div>Well they are not really.</div>
<div id="AppleMailSignature">They are a single subject lobbying/PR
firm.</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
That is completely untrue. See
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_Accountability">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_Accountability</a> for the
range of work they have done. And then is the Washington Post and
Wall Street Journal also lobbying firms??<br>
<br>
But you have evidently chosen to discredit the messenger to not
address the message. <br>
<br>
The real tragedy lies somewhere else: This one is supposed to be a
civil society group. I distinctly remember that the decision was
taken early on that this is a civil society only group -- that too
inclined more towards responsible, rather better organised civil
society. But what we have here is reps of big business tear apart
credible information on mis-doings of digital big business, when
civil society actors want to share some information, and hope for a
public interest discussion on it. And there is not much civil
society voice coming out on the issue - certainly not enough. Big
business actually is able to out shout civil society, on a civil
society list. This is the bane of civil society engage with
Internet/ digital policy issues .<br>
<br>
But then civil society leaders have largely brought it on
themselves. It is time we revisit the state of Internet/ digital
civil society. This specially when not only political and civil
rights issues (where sometimes genuine sometimes fake alliances with
big businesses were at times possible, and even prudent) but very
strong social and economic rights issues have come to fore in this
area, where big corporate in the key "other". It is tragic that
civil society does its work in the name of the world's people but is
not ready to do what is needed to advocate and fight for the true
interests of the vast majority of them, which are disadvantaged in
various ways.<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:E9E2F49E-49F1-424A-B79C-006767EA7668@cyberinvasion.net">
<div id="AppleMailSignature"><br>
Sent from my iPhone</div>
<div><br>
On 16 Jul 2017, at 14:14, Michael Oghia <<a
href="mailto:mike.oghia@gmail.com" moz-do-not-send="true">mike.oghia@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">Hi Parminder,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks for sharing this. I agree that it's odd they
don't since they are an organization advocating for
accountability – it is counterintuitive at best. Either
way, thanks for investigating. </div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all">
<div>
<div class="gmail_signature"
data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div><font
size="2"
face="arial,
helvetica,
sans-serif">Best,</font></div>
<div><font
size="2"
face="arial,
helvetica,
sans-serif">-Michael<br>
</font></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 3:04 PM,
parminder <span dir="ltr">
<<a href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">parminder@itforchange.net</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p><font face="Verdana">This is my recent exchange
with the head of Campaign for Accountability. I
tell him clearly that their policy of non
disclosure of their donors is not at all fine.
They do not explain why they do not disclose
their funders.. parminder
</font><br>
</p>
<div
class="m_7067951079241140790moz-forward-container"><br>
<br>
-------- Forwarded Message --------
<table
class="m_7067951079241140790moz-email-headers-table"
cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap"
align="RIGHT">Subject: </th>
<td>Re: Funding info for CfA</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap"
align="RIGHT">Date: </th>
<td>Sat, 15 Jul 2017 18:51:33 +0530</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap"
align="RIGHT">From: </th>
<td>parminder <a
class="m_7067951079241140790moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">
<parminder@itforchange.net></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap"
align="RIGHT">To: </th>
<td>Daniel Stevens <a
class="m_7067951079241140790moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:dstevens@campaignforaccountability.org" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<dstevens@<wbr>campaignforaccountability.org></a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<br>
<p><font face="Verdana">Thanks Dan for your prompt
response. It is much appreciated.
<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">While I still think it is
useful to divulge donors, especially for this
kind of work, I do greatly value your work.
Best wishes for it. Meanwhile I will like to
have your permission to share the below email
from you on the public elist where I am having
this discussion. parminder </font><br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="m_7067951079241140790moz-cite-prefix">On
Saturday 15 July 2017 06:10 PM, Daniel Stevens
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div
id="m_7067951079241140790divtagdefaultwrapper"
style="font-size:12pt;color:#000000;font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif"
dir="ltr">
<p>Good Morning,</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Thanks for contacting us about our work.
CfA does not disclose its donors. <span>We
think our work speaks for itself. Over
the past 18 months, the Google
Transparency Project has documented more
than 425 White House meetings by Google
lobbyists, 250 revolving door hires
between Google and government and more
than 325 academic papers paid for by the
company to help advance its policy
interests. All of the underlying data is
published on the site, along with more
than 40,000 pages of Google emails with US
government officials. The data in the
report has also been subject to analysis
by The Wall Street Journal, which cited
the data in its own investigative article
today.</span></p>
<p><span><br>
</span></p>
<p><span>Best,</span></p>
<p><span><br>
</span></p>
<p><span>Dan</span></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div id="m_7067951079241140790Signature">
<div
id="m_7067951079241140790divtagdefaultwrapper"
dir="ltr">
<div><span style="font-size:12pt">---</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:12pt">Daniel
Stevens</span><br>
</div>
<div>Executive Director</div>
<div>Campaign for Accountability</div>
<div>202.780.5750 (o)</div>
<div><a
href="http://campaignforaccountability.org/"
class="m_7067951079241140790OWAAutoLink"
id="m_7067951079241140790LPNoLP"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">http://<wbr>campaignforaccountability.org/</a><br>
</div>
<div><span
id="m_7067951079241140790entity-begin-mark"></span>@Accountable_Org</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr style="display:inline-block;width:98%">
<div id="m_7067951079241140790divRplyFwdMsg"
dir="ltr"><font style="font-size:11pt"
face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000"><b>From:</b>
parminder
<a
class="m_7067951079241140790moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:parminder@itforchange.net"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">
<parminder@itforchange.net></a><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, July 15, 2017 2:52:10
AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Daniel Stevens<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Funding info for CfA</font>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div>
<p><font face="Verdana">Dear Madam/ Sir</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:100%">I
think you do great work. But it looks more
than a tad odd that an organisation that
seeks, and so actively too, accountability
in public life itself does not publish its
annual report and funding sources on its
website. I am sure it must just have been an
oversight, but will you be able to share
your annual funding statement with me.
Thanks.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:100%">Let
me tell you the background of this request.
I posted on an Internet governance e-list
the coverage of your story on how Google
funds so many academic reports in Internet
policy space. A useful discussion ensued.
But someone pointed out that CfA itself does
not publicly disclose its funding sources. I
agreed it was odd that it doesnt.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:100%">If
you indeed are able to share your funding
statement I will inform all the skeptics of
this fact. I myself work with an NGO and
some global civil society networks, and
publishing our funding sources is considered
a simple necessity to have any credibility
in this area. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:100%">Thanks,
for your great work, and look forward to an
early response.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:100%">Best
regards</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:100%">parminder</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:100%">IT
for Change (<a
class="m_7067951079241140790moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.ITforChange.net"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">www.ITforChange.net</a>)<br>
</p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
______________________________<wbr>______________________________<br>
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:<br>
<a href="mailto:bestbits@lists.bestbits.net"
moz-do-not-send="true">bestbits@lists.bestbits.net</a>.<br>
To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:<br>
<a
href="http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/<wbr>info/bestbits</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div><span>____________________________________________________________</span><br>
<span>You received this message as a subscriber on the list:</span><br>
<span> <a href="mailto:bestbits@lists.bestbits.net"
moz-do-not-send="true">bestbits@lists.bestbits.net</a>.</span><br>
<span>To unsubscribe or change your settings, visit:</span><br>
<span> <a
href="http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://lists.bestbits.net/wws/info/bestbits</a></span></div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>