About the Internet Society 

Board of Trustees

2005 Board Election

Candidates Forum

From Marilyn Cade

The questions are very thought provoking. My response is more constrained by personal time limitations than I expected, when I stood for the Board.

It is not fully responsive to the questions and I both note that, and recognize with respect the very interesting and informed answers of other candidates.

In my personal view, and some of the ISOC members reading this who know me, have heard me on this topic, the Internet is experiencing its own “tsunami”.

Perhaps politically incorrect, but to me, it has the same disastrous implications that a physical tsunami has.

We are at the earthquake under the ocean phase. There are some ripples. Some indications. Nothing really, really visible. Some in the Internet are recognizing it, but most are actually doing “business” whatever that might be, and I use that term very generally to include just going about daily life of enhancing the Internet, building new network connections, creating new applications, advancing new standards, and on and on.

The tsunami overtaking the Internet is the new, and renewed threat of governmental oversight, control, and management.

I speak often about the renewed threats to the “private sector leadership” by governments and here, I hope that all of us can agree that in this case, private sector equates to anyone other than governments. Don’t get me wrong. I spend my day job working with governments. But I am very concerned, and consumed with the challenges of ensuring the private sector leads in the Internet – technologically, economically, and socially. To me, the role of governments related to the Internet is to facilitate the role and involvement of the private sector, NOT to replace it. Or even really to augment it.

My vision of a public private partnership of government and private sector looks more like private sector advising government on what they can and should do than what is the view of many of the governments.

The WSIS process isn’t where I want to be. It seems to assume that we shift to an environment where governments are more in control. Or even in control.

How does that happen, and what can ISOC do about it, and what is ISOC’s role.

There is a desperate and continuing need for information, awareness, and creativity in creating the people to people links that used to define the Internet. We were, after all, really 6 degrees of separation, weren’t we? If I didn’t know the answer, I knew someone who knew someone, and we introduced each other, and … etc.

The Internet, by 2006, will have a billion users…. 1 in every 9 will be from China. The following year, one in every 10 will be from India, and 1 in 10 will be from China. And of the remaining 8, 4 of those will want and need non ASCII content in order to truly benefit from the Internet’s connectedness. More traffic from non-personned devices [I can’t say non-manned, given I’m a female] than from traditional devices will begin to contribute to traffic growth.

But the Internet has a smaller number of technological players. There is of course a desperate need for interconnectedness between the technical players who make the Internet “go”. Today, already, much is needed in technical training, education, and so on, for those essential players from developing countries. Internet users don’t understand their role, their responsibilities, and their individual accountability – whether corporations, or individuals. And the need for ISOC leadership, influence, contribution is really so great….

And the challenges are growing….

There is confusion about whether the Internet is the infrastructure, or all the content. And governments are searching for “their role”. As are users.

Internet governance is the tsunami overtaking the Internet.

I have been thinking of what I can do to help to build the barriers that divert some of the power of the tsunami.

And, I’ve reached a conclusion that for now, I need to focus on diverting some of the force of the tsunami.

I am very involved in ICANN, and have been spending a tremendous amount of time on WSIS and WGIG activities in addition. I spend time trying to work at the ITU in the political Study Groups to influence them to be more attuned to the concerns of the private sector members, and to avoid the kind of encroachment they are presently engaged in, to my dismay, sometimes noting that they are supported by some parts of the industry sector members in their encroachment. Perhaps even some of those companies who are also ISOC members. It isn’t always clear to industry how best to deal with intergovernmental offers of “help”. I understand that.

As I have been involved in WSIS and in WGIG’s open forums, I have come to see that my time and involvement at ICANN is essential, and I am intending to continue the strong commitment to the continual evolution of ICANN, with a firm commitment to the bottom up, consensus based “White Paper” ICANN that I helped to create.

My views are formed and influenced by my experiences in dealing with governments.

I think I need to focus my attention on the policy activities within ICANN that are critical to its success that I’ve already committed to.

And I hope to work with ISOC in other ways.

I think that ISOC has never had the opportunity to be as influential, or as important, or as needed as it is now, and for the forthcoming 5-10 years.

ISOC is about private sector leadership. Whether through chapters, or regional events, or global forums: there is a crying need for information, awareness, presence, capacity building, engagement and interaction.

All of the candidates who have posted are clear about their commitment to all of that.

I wish them well.

And, as a member of ISOC, I will count on working with whoever is elected, and with the ISOC leadership, in the wide variety of challenges that face the Internet.

A tsunami – can it be diverted? Probably not. But working together with others who share the vision of the Internet that has so far been so effective and beneficial to the Internet’s growth and extension to global users, we can possibly divert some of the most hostile impacts.