[governance] FYI: Letter from Bulgarian Internet community

[George Sadowsky]

I admit I missed the quote several pages below, but I an in agreement 
with McTim's assessment.  Also remember that this statement refers to 
ISOC and ISOC activities, not IETF activities.

In general, organizations that look for support will permit tying 
donations to specific objectives; in fact organizations such as 
universities will encourage it if they believe they can increase 
donations by doing so..  However, as economists will tell you, money 
is fungible.  This means in effect that tied money goes to specific 
objectives, while money received for general use is then allocated 
toother objectives.  Organizations generally have a relatively fixed 
set of objectives in the short run, and the two kinds of donations 
are 'mingled' to meet that set of objectives.

George


At 7:31 PM +0300 5/31/09, McTim wrote:
>I'm rushing out the door, but I'll bite (quickly)
>
>On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 7:20 PM, Parminder <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
>>  George Sadowsky wrote:
>>
>>  All,
>>  I believe that what Jefsey writes about platinum members of ISOC being able
>>  to designate areas for standardization (presumably in the IETF, since that's
>>  where that happens) is and incorrect.  The quote below does not come from
>>  the page he references.
>>
>>  George,
>>
>>  What Jefsey wrote does come directly from the document he links, if you keep
>>  reading it after the quote you refer to. The full quote in the document is:
>>
>>  "The Platinum Sponsorship Program allows your  company to specifically
>>  designate areas or projects to be supported in the fields of a) Standards,
>>  b) Public Policy or c) Education and Training.
>
>This just means that you can ask that your cash go to support the work
>of ISOC in one of the areas, it doesn't mean you can "buy a protocol".
>
>Which is what is being inferred by some.
><snip>
>>  I have a huge problem with anyone being allowed to buy a position on the
>>  governance system
>
>They aren't buying seats on the ISOC Board are they?
>
>  of a body which is either closely involved in policy
>>  making, or claims to be  a civil society body (and ISOCs seems to do both).
>
>I think you would be hard pressed to find any CS body that wouldn't
>allow donations to be directed at specific parts of that orgs
>workload.
>
>
><snip>
>
>>
>>  I earnestly hope that ISOC as a body involved in policy making, or as a
>>  civil society entity, or both, will respond to these key issues that are
>>  being raised about its practices.
>
>Nothing to see here ppl, move along.  and please trim your mails!!
>
>--
>Cheers,
>
>McTim

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