[governance] FYI: Letter from Bulgarian Internet community
Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law
froomkin at law.miami.edu
Sun May 31 15:43:46 EDT 2009
Er, how about the restructuring of the board to have a controlling number
of seats for paying members than those who formerly controled ISOC?
Isn't that a form a 'favoritism'? (Apologies if I have the timing wrong,
but wasn't that during your tenure?)
On Sun, 31 May 2009, George Sadowsky wrote:
> 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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--
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A. Michael Froomkin | Professor of Law | froomkin at law.tm
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