[governance] Jo-Anne Scott remembered

[ian.peter at ianpeter.com]

Thanks so much for posting that George, a beautiful tribute to Jo Anne. 
I was sad to receive this news a few days ago: Jo Anne was a pioneer in 
the global spread of the Internet, and you have outlined her role 
magnificently. And indeed, at that first ISOC Developing Countries 
workshop which you mention, it was interesting to note that the non 
profit global networks which Jo Anne was involved in initially had a 
(slightly) wider geographic spread than the mainstream academic networks 
which were another major stream in the early global spread of the 
internet. Those workshops played a major role in bringing these two 
streams together- and I hope your role is not forgotten either!  I'll 
include at the bottom of this message some links for those who want to 
know more of the history of this time and the developments Jo Anne 
played such a pivotal organising and back room role in. Too often we 
forget those who played organisational roles.

I understand that Jo Anne had been suffering from dementia for some 
time, even noticeable back in the 1990s. She  was supported through 
these difficult times and as her condition advanced by her equally 
wonderful life partner, Scott Weikart: who released this sad news 
earlier this week.

Ian Peter

Some links

https://www.apc.org/en/about/history

https://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/global.html




------ Original Message ------
From: "George Sadowsky" <governance at lists.riseup.net>
To: "governance" <governance at lists.riseup.net>
Sent: 17/08/2019 3:53:46 AM
Subject: [governance] Jo-Anne Scott remembered

>I'm very sad to hear of Jo-Anne Scott's passing.  She was a good 
>colleague and a good friend.
>
>I first met Jo-Anne at a meeting in Palo Alto in September 1992, hosted 
>by Steve From and Scott Weikert. A few months before that, I had 
>discussed with Larry Landweber at INET'92 in Kobe the possibility of 
>setting up a training program in Internet technology and use for people 
>from developing countries. In the 1970s and 1980s, I worked for the 
>United Nations and was involved in many technology transfer programs in 
>the area of computing, and I had seen to my dismay the state of 
>technical knowledge, education, and resources in most of the countries 
>in which I had worked. Larry suggested giving it a try. Steve Fram was 
>one of the early collaborators, and we were meeting in his office in 
>Palo Alto to do the initial planning.
>
>Jo-Anne  attended the meeting, I had not known her before, but her 
>enthusiasm for the project and solving logistical aspects of making it 
>happen were contagious, so we became the initial band of 
>co-conspirators for what became ISOC's network technologies training 
>program for people from developing countries.   Since INET'93  was 
>planned  for San Francisco in August 1993, we decided to hold  the 
>training workshop in the Silicon Valley just before the INET meeting, 
>and then have the trainees participate also in that meeting. We believe 
>that the latter step was important in introducing them to the people we 
>hoped would be their future Internet colleagues and would assist them 
>in the developments in their own countries.
>
>At the time I was working at New York University and was not situated 
>to assist in local preparation for the workshop.  Joanne lived in Palo 
>Alto, and she believed that she could work with Stanford University to 
>provide lodging, classroom space, and meals for the trainees and 
>trainers during August 1993. She set about to do it with a vigor, 
>enthusiasm, and initiative that characterized her contributions to the 
>workshop for the next five years.. She convinced the University to 
>provide dormitory space, meal arrangements,and suitable classroom space 
>for the entire process, and she coordinated all of the preparatory 
>work, including the  procurement,  delivery, and set up for a large 
>number of personal computers to be used by the three training tracks. 
>She also arranged for  several social events in the evenings to foster 
>a sense of professional community among the attendees, as well as to 
>meet local people who lived in the Palo Alto area. I remember her 
>setting up a fireside chat with Vint Cerf one evening, which resulted 
>in a spirited discussion of the potential of the Internet and the 
>importance of what it could provide for development.
>
>At the end of  INET' 93, Jo-Anne and I had dinner with the INET'94  
>conference chair, and after  reviewing the success of our workshop, we 
>decided to do it again, a decision that was repeated  for several years 
>after that. Although it may not have been clear to the workshop 
>participants, the amount of logistical preparation  required to set up 
>the Prague workshop in 1994 was immense. Only a few years had elapsed 
>since the erosion of the iron curtain and the dissolution of the Soviet 
>Union, and Czechoslovakia was in a rapid state of change. Joanne 
>cooperated with the Czech Technical University to find space for 
>housing in the Hotel Krystal, a tram ride away from the University 
>buildings in which staff would be teaching the four tracks. The Hotel 
>Krystal  even had a computer lab with 24  computers, connected to the 
>Internet via a low-bandwidth permanent  connection. During the 
>workshop, Jo-Anne learned that our Hotel Krystal had only been a hotel 
>for a few years and before that it had been the training institute for 
>the Czech secret police. We wondered how many microphones were still 
>installed in various parts of the building, including the sleeping 
>rooms.  Jo-Anne also discovered the "Chicago Pizza House"  (not a 
>typo!)  in an underground warren near the hotel, where we went for 
>relief several times to escape the rich Czech food offerings.
>
>Jo-Anne  continued to participate actively in and support the workshop 
>activities in 1995 in Honolulu, in 1996 in Montréal and in 1997 in 
>Kuala Lumpur. In 1994 she discovered the local travel agent in Palo 
>Alto, Maria Orvell, who worked with Joanne and together they became 
>accomplished in  bringing people from all parts of the world to 
>wherever the next INET meeting was going to be held.
>
>The process of choosing and assisting participants to attend the 
>workshops was extensive. Applications were solicited through a number 
>of channels, including disseminating information by participants in 
>formal workshops. These all came to Jo-Anne and she prepared them for 
>evaluation by a committee consisting of the teaching staff for the next 
>workshop. After that, the complex process of distributing the financial 
>resources that we were able to obtain, ascertaining the possibility of 
>visas and helping participants to obtain them (including making 
>intercessions with the host country), and making flight arrangements, 
>and this generally had to be performed individually for each 
>participant. The logistics process took a lot of time andinitiative, 
>and Joanne was able to do it, always in time to meet our deadlines.
>
>Jo-Anne was a true partner. She embodied the spirit of the Internet, 
>helping, sharing, supporting, and giving of herself so that others 
>might learn and  in turn share with a new with others in their country. 
>She believed strongly in the Internet's ability to help people in 
>earlier stages of development, and she gave herself fully to the task. 
>Many workshop participants saw her correctly as fundamental to the 
>success of their experience. I'm glad that she lived long enough to 
>observe the benefits of her contribution to global Internet 
>development, but very sad that she was not able to continue to do so.  
>She will be missed.
>
>George
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>George Sadowsky                                    Residence tel: 
>+1.301.968.4325
>8300 Burdette Road, Apt B-472                          Mobile: 
>+1.202.415.1933
>Bethesda MD  20817-2831  USA                                    Skype: 
>sadowsky
>george.sadowsky at gmail.com                http://www.georgesadowsky.org/
>
>
>
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