[ncdnhc-discuss] ISOC to bid on .org

[Hans Klein]

At 11:58 PM 6/3/2002 -0400, Don Heath wrote:

>At this point all that was done was to suspend election of Trustees by 
>Individual members, for 2002.  That is a case provided in the ISOC bylaws.

Don,

Do I understand you correctly?  The elimination of the members' voting 
rights is a temporary measure?  Without further action, will members' 
rights resume?

A few other comments on this thread:

Although ISOC's role in DNS policy has been associated with the "insiders", 
generally ISOC has been an admirable organization.  It has done good work 
in privacy and especially in diffusing the Internet to developing 
countries.  It has lots of good members -- some of whom are currently 
actively contesting the bylaw changes.

*Who* ISOC is probably depends on those by-laws.  With the new bylaws, ISOC 
becomes a different organization.  I guess it will be more like a corporate 
association of some sort than an association of Internet professionals.

The claim that members had to lose the vote because the cost too much has 
been contested on the ISOC lists.  The ISOC conference (INET) has been a 
financial problem.  In contrast, the claim that members were a problem is, 
in my opinion, not that credible.

The parallels between ICANN and ISOC are no accident.  ISOC was supposed to 
be ICANN, and ISOC's members were supposed to be a kind of At Large.  The 
parallel evolution of their governance structures reflects how the two 
organizations are 
intertwined.  See: 
http://www.cpsr.org/internetdemocracy/cyber-fed/Number_10.html

A governance debate is unfolding within ISOC that parallels that with ICANN.

Cheers,
Hans