Board of Trustees
2005 Board Election
Candidates Forum
From Alex Corenthin
ANSWER TO QUESTION 1:
The ISOC responses of the major changes of the Internet are, in my point of view, mainly focused on the technical issues (Internet II, IPv6, DNS ).
In we look forward, the most important things, we can highlight on the Internet these last years are :
- The involvement of the private companies, on the last past years, when it appears that this technology became a major trend for the business transactions and a profitable area of interest
- The improvement of communications between the universities, the civil society, spread to the whole communities and the interest of Internet as a democratic way of expression became a challenge to reduce the social gap between the poorest and the others countries.
I think that ISOC need to review the goals of the Internet and became more present on the policy issues.
ANSWER TO QUESTION 2:
English
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The three pillars of ISOC remain, in my point of view, restrictive in comparison with the problems now appearing within the development of the Internet in the world.
The objectives of the Millenium program show that the great challenge of the modern world is to create an equitable and egalitarian society, based on the sharing of knowledge and the resources.
At the day of today, it is true and essential that the political shutter is that which requires the most interest, with the major changes of the relations between States and the socio-economic stakes of the world of tomorrow. For the developing countries, as well as for the others, the sector of Education remains and will remain essential to build a society respecting the values and the diversity of the people and the nations.
The loss of the identities is the major risk of the technological society which is set up and whose essential vector is the Internet.
Taking for illustration the future of the Amazonian forest, the technological and economic development without respect of these, is a major risk to lose our environment and cultural richness of the minority people, involving other inequalities.
The Education shutter should not be primarily technological; it must be based on the promotion of major aspects related on the environment, the safeguard of the inheritance and cultural diversity. It seems to me, that the future of the information society have to highlight these aspects, and ISOC must focus its actions on the development of the uses, while working on these aspects.
Français
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Les trois axes de travail de ISOC restent limitatifs au regard des enjeux de l'Internet dans le monde.
Les objectifs du Millénaire montrent que le grand défi du monde moderne est de créer une société juste et équitable, basée sur le partage des connaissances et des ressources.
Au jour d'aujourd'hui, il est vrai et essentiel que le volet politique est celui qui requiert le plus d'intérêt, avec les changements majeurs des relations entre Etats et les enjeux socio-économiques du monde de demain.
Mais pour les pays du tiers-monde aussi bien que pour les pays développés, le secteur de l'Education reste et restera essentiel pour bâtir une société respectant les valeurs et la diversité des peuples et des nations. La perte des identités est le risque majeur de la société technologique qui se met en place et dont le vecteur essentiel est l'INTERNET.
A l'image de la forêt amazonienne, le développement technologique et économique risque de nous faire perdre notre environnement et la richesse culturelle des peuples minoritaires, entraînant d'autres inégalités.
Le volet Education ne doit pas être essentiellement technologique, il doit s'appuyer sur la promotion d'aspects majeurs liés à l'environnement, à la sauvegarde du patrimoine et à la diversité culturelle.
Il me semble que le futur de la société de l'information repose sur la prise en compte de ces aspects, et ISOC doit axer ses actions sur le développement des usages, en travaillant sur ces aspects.
ANSWER TO QUESTION 3:
English
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Universal access, the safeguarding of the identities and socio cultural specificities of the individuals seems me to be one of the major challenges of ISOC in the years to come.
That passes by the setup of standards on the internationalization and the localization of the software giving access to Internet to facilitate and promote :
- interfacing of linguistic tools, adapted to give access to most of the people
- Mechanisms of translation adapted to the cultural context
- coding of the less spoken languages.
- multilingual search engines
I would be particularly honoured to work with the installation and the animation of a section of Internet Society particularly dedicated to the problems of the visibility of the languages on the Web, the promotion of the diversity of the languages through adapted tools and the effective installation of IDN standards for the access to Internet.
Français
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L'accès universel, la préservation des identités et des spécificités socioculturelles des individus me semblent être l'un des chantiers majeurs de ISOC dans les années à venir. Cela passe par la mise en place rapide de normes sur l'internationalisation et la localisation des logiciels permettant l'accès à Internet.
Il s'agit également de faciliter et de promouvoir :
- L'interfaçage d'outils linguistiques adaptés pour permettre l'accès au plus grand nombre à la société de l'Information,
- Les mécanismes de traduction adaptés au contexte culturel et
- le codage des langues peu dotées.
- Les moteurs de recherche multilingues
Je serais particulièrement honoré de travailler à la mise en place et à l'animation d'une section d'Internet Society particulièrement dédiée à la problématique de la visibilité des langues sur le Web, de la promotion de la diversité des langues à travers des outils adaptés et la mise en place effective des normes IDN pour l'accès à Internet.
ANSWER TO QUESTION 4:
ISOC organisation need to be reviewed, in order to take in account the geographical representation and the linguistic specificities, of the chapters, in order to ensure a better communication and interaction between them and the HQ.
For most of ISOC chapters, the framework discussed didn't reflect they problem, which seems to be basic on regard of the US and Europe area of interest, and this is true also for the others organisation like ICANN.
Another issue is lack of resources and sponsorship of the people from developing countries to attend the meetings and events of these organisations mainly organised in the north. The necessary individual involvement, in the developing countries, to be part of the process is facing the necessity to find time and additional resources for this.
Another main problem is to ensure the translation on time of the documents for the meetings and events of these organisations. The multilingualism in the communication process, have to be mandatory to facilitate the participation of all, and reflect the specific interests of the community.
This can be done, by
- setting up regional chapters and a new process for the election on the Board, reflecting the geographic representation
- ensuring the translation of the web site in the most relevant languages of our communities.
ANSWER TO QUESTION 5:
The developing countries needs to continuously face the cost of the proprietary software to ensure to the citizen an equitable access to the information technology.
This battle between free distribution and protection of intellectual property in several different areas within cyberspace deals only for the control of the economic development of the new information society.
ISOC have to strengthen the actions and discussions on the liberty of choice for the software, and support the development of FOSS within the ISOC community. It is also mandatory to ISOC to be present in all WIPO and WTO meetings to ensure that the point of view of the civil society and the developing countries is reflected in the debates.
If we don't react on this issue, this can be a new barrier for the developing countries to reach the goals of the governance issues.
Comments on Veni response to Question 4
Veni saids
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> and Africa seem to be startled by the antagonism when they say things
which are not pleasant for the ears of some of the Trustees.
I dont agree with Veni in his analysis, If most of the african chapters
did not speak, it is because mainly they dont believe that their concern
are taken in charge by ISOC BOT and HQ.
When we have the opportunity to be present, the african voice was
expressed mainly by ISOC chapters members and we are proud to have won
some battles
- African representation on the board of directors of ICANN
- African presence in WSIS process (The setup of digital solidarity fund
was supported by ISOC SN chapters members in WSIS process)
- etc ...
We dont fear any antagonism with others Trustee and organisation. We
face these challenges every day with our policies makers.
The issues discussed in the BOT seems to be not relevant with the
situation of the African chapters.
- When in 1996, in Montreal, we act to have our own IP registry and we
succeed to have Afrinic working today, are we inactive ?
But when the only language is english and your mother langage is not
fully respected in the fora, how do you express your opinion ?
We are working very hard in our countries to face the challenges of
development, our main concern is the education of the grasroot and the
policy makers, the implementation of the technology and the improvment
of the connectivity in Africa.
ANSWER TO QUESTION 6:
Question 6: What is your view of the "Internet Governance" issue?
The Internet Governance issue is the major challenge for the citizens, following the process in WGIG and WSIS activities; it seems that the point of view of the Civil Society and the Governments are quit different. The worst result in WSIS, is to fail to resolve these contradictions, by a consensual action plan in this matter, and give by this way, the opportunities to the governments to be free to act, as they want, in the local governance issues.
The inclusion of the UN agencies in this process didn’t give, in my point of view, the opportunity to the civil society to be involved in the internet administration and governance of internet.
The role of ICANN and the relationship between this organisation and the 3 majors actors of the WSIS process need to reflect a democratic representation.
I hope that this process succeed, to tackle the definition of governance issues and global citizenship. This can be done, if all the people involved in the process, think globally and don’t forget that the trend is to act locally. It is in my mind, the way to provide to the whole community the insurance that, they needs and they roles in the governance process, are really taken in account by the decision makers.
ANSWER TO QUESTION 8:
Question 8: Governance of ISOC
The difficulties for a global organisation like ISOC, is to define the membership rules, to ensure a democratic representation of all members in the boards. The late membership discuss, is a perfect illustration of the gap between the different appreciations of ISOC members.
The actual model seems to be the one, in my sense, which make a real leapfrog in this direction.
If the elections process is made by elected members of ISOC chapters and those from the constituencies, this ensures a democratic representation in the board.
By making a difference in the membership levels, between those which can pay to have a right to elect and the others, ISOC exclude in fact a lot a people who don’t have this possibility, particularly those from our chapters.
If we want to have a real model of good governance, let us setup more representative sub entities of ISOC like regional chapters …
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