An interesting post from isoc-e policy list:

http://lists.isoc-e.org/pipermail/policy/2019-December/000977.html

On 04/12/2019 14:52, Jonathan Robin wrote:

Good Afternoon

The last time I saw Christine Maxwell was followed a lunch thanking speakers at the United Nations Intergovernmental Council UNESCO IFAP March 2006 her parting words to me were "End of Chapter" where, perhaps End of Chapters would have been more appropriate.

Hiving off .org, for those few present on this list today who were active participants in ISOC governance around the time of ISOC "inheritance of .org", - where incidentally Lynn initially stated she failed to see the point of the operation, is perhaps the final nail in the coffin of fictitious portrayal of ISOC's pseudo democratic representivity instanced by the dissolution of the ISTF and later ISOC European Chapters' Coordination.

Passing from inability to cover payroll to it's current abundance of financial honey may satisfy the few who stand to feather nests but serves in the humble opinion of this author to underline Christine's words with or without the "s".  Chapters seem maintained to comfort ISOC's non profit status and legal standing, but should not distract from the fact that they retain almost zero leverage, having effectively betrayed their mission almost 15 years ago.

FOR THE RECORD At the conclusion of the Trustee's meeting in Yokohama I was given strict instructions by Vint Cerf, Don Heath, and Brian Carpenter to abort ISOC's application for NGO status to UNESCO - which would have explicitly ended any historical relationship with any UN system entity.  Following a discussion with two other trustees I took the decision to explicitly countermand those instructions and provided UNESCO with the means to process the application which has, since, become one of the cornerstones of ISOC's raison d'être.

To the 3750 'volunteers" of ISOC (dixit Wikipedia) who continue in the footsteps of those both active and relatively influential in the late 1990's and the early years of the millennium, one extends the season's greetings and wishes for success in reconciling their intellectual conscience as members of ISOC to the covert manipulation to which they have been exposed for over 15 years and to which some participators in this thread were unashamedly partis prenants because IMHO they inadvertently provide a superficial cushion of legitimacy to an organization at odds with its mission.

IMHO Chapters' remonstrations can as easily counteract the .org sale as they could the dissolution of ISOC ECC  (or for that matter of the ISTF) - the battle was lost at the Trustees Meeting in Tokyo and the rest is history.

Best regards Jonathan Robin

formerly

VP ISOC France

Secretary General ISOC ECC

Steering Committee Internet Societal Task Force

ISOC Liaison UNESCO

Hi all,

Just to say that I am involved in this debate through the ISOC
Switzerland Chapter, which has joined the "opposition" to this decision
together with a few other chapters, especially because of the
non-transparent way that this was made.

My opinion is that independently from the decision making process, this
is a bad development that can harm significantly the reputation of ISOC.
I am not sure if it is still possible to stop it, but I don't feel like
"building on it", at least not at this stage.

For now I would ask if the CNSIG would be willing to take actually a
position on the selling of .org to a private firm.

Btw, the Swiss chapter recently received the news that we got a Beyond
the Net Grant to run a platform (a monthly gathering in NetHood's new
space in Zurich, http://langstrasse200.ch/) for "digital self-defense"
in collaboration with different organizations including the
pep.foundation, CCC Switzerland, the University of Zurich and more.

Best,

Panos.



On 05.12.19 23:20, novaes@riseup.net wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

You're probably aware of the fact that ISOC sold .org to Ethos Capital
(I was just reading the transcript): 

https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/INTERNETSOCIETY/9326b863-2164-403d-bacf-a8d25486b943/UploadedImages/Community_Webinar_PIR-Ethos-ISOC-transcript.pdf)

What seems relevant for CNSIG is that one of the arguments used to
justify the transaction was "connecting the unconnected":

"Gonzalo Camarillo: So this actually allows us to fulfill the mission,
which I think has been stated several times. It's very wide and when it
comes, for example, with connecting the unconnected, we are talking
about like 4 billion people that could be basically positively affected
with this". (p.26)

Maybe it would be opportune for the CNSIG to organize it better in order
to demand funds/programs more specifically designed to CN goals (I take
this moment to congratulate Sarantaporo!). What do you think?

all best,

Thiago
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