[governance] FYI: Letter from Bulgarian Internet community

[George Sadowsky]

This is getting to be a silly argument.

Norbert: you know full well that ISOC is not governed the way 
Cambodia is.  Why make the post?

Parminder:  You seem to have a lot of problems.

I was on the ISOC Board for 7 years, stepping down in 2004.  I never 
saw any evidence of favoritism to commercial entities that were 
donors to ISOC.  I doubt that this has changed.

I suggest that if you want an explanation of of what this membership 
applications means, you go directly to ISOC and ask them.

George

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At 12:40 AM +0700 6/1/09, Norbert Klein wrote:
>Thanks, Parminder, for extending the text of the quote.
>
>Living in Cambodia, I know what "sponsorship" can mean.
>
>
>Norbert
>
>=
>
>On Sunday, 31 May 2009 23:20:47 Parminder 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. Your
>>  organization will have enhanced, direct consultation with ISOC regarding
>>  its activities in your funded area. Additional benefits also apply."
>>
>>  > The actual quote on that page is:
>>  >
>>  >     "Supporting our Platinum Program gives your company the ability to
>>  >     focus your contributions specifically on the essential work of the
>>  >     IETF and our Standards activities.."
>>  >
>>  > Supporting the standards activities in general is not the same as, as
>>  > he suggests,  specifically designating areas or projects to be
>>  > supported in the fields of standards.
>>  >
>>  > George
>>
>>  Now that you know what he quoted is correct, what are your comments on
>>  it, as someone who I understand is closely associated with ISOC.  BTW
>>  the term 'enhanced .... consultations' reminds me of something :) but
>>  that is another matter .
>>
>>  I have a huge problem with anyone being allowed to buy a position on the
>>  governance system 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 also have problem with providing any kind of preferred access
>>  to policy spaces for private interests that are impacted by the
>>  concerned policies, which is expressly mentioned in the above quote. My
>>  concerns follow from what are hallowed canons of democratic societies,
>>  and the fact that we are increasingly compromising them is indeed alarming.
>>
>>  I find these practices fundamentally antithetical to building of
>>  legitimate and democratic governance and civil society structures and
>>  basically against public interest. However, regrettably, the ideology
>>  behind these kinds of practices is catching on which I think is one of
>>  the biggest dangers our society faces today. (Remember, it was tried at
>>  the IGF as well, with a threat to pull out funding if certain issues
>>  were raised at the IGF.)
>>
>>  I brought up exactly the same point at the recent workshop on APC-CoE's
>>  proposed code of good practices on participation, transparency etc. The
>>  list of the IG organizations reviewed in the study done by David Souter
>>  for the above proposed code included ISOC. I inter alia raised the issue
>>  that we also need to review practices related to the relationship of
>  > funding with seats in governance structures and preferred access to
>>  policy spaces. This is an important aspect of participation and
>>  transparency, which just cannot be left out.
>>
>>  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.
>>
>>  Parminder
>>
>>  PS: At another place the ISOC doc says: "...you can direct your support
>>  dollars towards  the Internet Society's public policy activities and
>>  ensure that your voice will be heard on  these critical issues". Does
>>  ISOC act as a lobbying organization on behalf of any big corporate that
>>  can afford to pay it? Are the public policy positions of ISOC then not
>>  obviously disproportionately influenced by these big corporate funders?
>>  These are important questions ISOC must answer as a key player in the
>>  public arena vis a vis IG issues.
>
>
>--
>If you want to know what is going on in Cambodia, please visit
>The Mirror, a regular review of the Cambodian language press in English.
>
>This is the latest weekly editorial:
>
>Law Enforcement
>http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/law-enforcement-sunday-24-5-2009/
>(To read it, click on the line above.)
>
>And here is something new every day:
>http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com
>
>PGP key-id 0x0016D0A9
>
>
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