Sam,
Sam Hartman wrote:
"Bob" == Bob Hinden <bob(_dot_)hinden(_at_)nokia(_dot_)com> writes:
Bob> The ISOC is certainly not perfect and has had serious
Bob> problems in the past. These problems have been solved and as
Bob> far as I can tell the ISOC is working well. I would note
Bob> that the ISOC was initially set up by competent people with
Bob> the best of intentions, but things did not work out as
Bob> originally planned.
Would you mind summarizing these problems for those of us who are
relatively new to the process?
There could be many different views on this, but my summary (as an
ISOC Board member and Board Chair during some of the relevant period)
is that the ISOC went through a severe financial crisis, due to
some financially disastrous annual conferences, and the economic
problems in our industry. This financial crisis made it increasingly
impossible to ignore some deep problems in ISOC's governance model.
So we made painful budget cuts (but always protecting the IETF
related expenditure), reformed the Board structure, and (to my
personal surprise) made a big success of "grandfathering"
the .org registry.
Hidden behind the governance reform was the fact that, although
some people from the IETF community joined ISOC, the majority
of the individual members were (and are) drawn from a much
broader spectrum of Internet users worldwide. They had the only
voice in electing the old Board. The IETF, and ISOC's industrial
supporters, had no voice. That needed to be changed, and was changed
starting 2001.
Brian
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