Board of Trustees
2005 Board Election
Candidates Forum
From Richard St. Clair
No matter how you classify ISOC, or define it's charter or mission
statements, and no matter what questions you ask of its future, or
current challenges, it all comes down to one thing:
ISOC is really a communications organization, designed to make the
Internet "better".
The ways that we choose to do that as an organization, is what defines
what we mean when we say "better".
Right now, to be honest, I think *most* of ISOC's members "out there"
in Cyberworld, really don't understand what ISOC is, what it does, and
how it directly or indirectly effects it's members [and the end users
on the Internet itself]. And Internet users who are not members, in
general, simply don't have a clue (most Internet users that I speak to
in my travels don't even know what ISOC is).
I think THAT is the current challenge that ISOC faces.
The details come and go at an alarming pace. Whatever is happening at
the moment, in ISOC's history, or in a particular meeting, or even on
the short term horizon, be it membership classifications, WGIG, WSIS,
etc., they all get back to the challenge of being able to communicate
with members, and stakeholders, and global organizations that are
constantly struggling to make sense of a very complex collection of
modules and technical things, and global entities, that we simply refer
to as "the Internet". And what makes it more complicated in the
current light of the state of the Internet is that many of those
organizations out there are struggling for control of parts of what
makes the Internet happen (add to that the fact that for some, it's all
about money, and nothing else).
To be strong in that kind of atmosphere, ISOC needs to improve
communications techniques on a fundamental level (and I mean from both
directions-bottom up and top down), and start bringing the fragmented
membership into a new understanding of "what it all means" to be
working toward a better Internet for the users who sit on the end of
the TCP/IP connections. And whatever that means, that is the path we
should follow.
Many times in the flash of what it means to be involved in global
committees and boards, and corporations, and grass roots groups, it
becomes so cumbersome, complicated, busy, and sometimes generally
"loud" that it's very easy to forget what the bottom line is supposed
to be all about, and that is:
- Make the Internet more reliable
- Make the Internet Cheaper
- Make the Internet available for everyone who wants it.
Hopefully, that's what we mean when we say we are making the Internet
"better".
How we as ISOC develop and utilize our internal communications tools
will determine how well we will be able to assist in those basic goals.
From that improved communications pool, we will draw the new challenges
that ISOC will face.
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