[governance] FYI: Letter from Bulgarian Internet community
George Sadowsky
george.sadowsky at attglobal.net
Sun May 31 16:50:57 EDT 2009
Not during my time.
>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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>
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