Well, actually the ISOC is the only *official* organization related to the Internet. I mean the only organization with official, legal status. That's why it is the umbrella for all the other internet-related organizations, including the IETF, the IAB, etc. You are right when you notice that nobody from the ISOC was there. This is sad. I think that the ISOC should be the first to be present. Why leave the technical experts only (i.e. the IETF) deal with this? I personally think that the ISOC should be the first in charge of this subject and of all related actions and procedures. The ISOC should call the others (like the IETF) when needed, by example to testify, give a technical advice, or take in charge some part of the procedure. Anyway, the ISOC should be more present that it seems to be today. Now, we must admit that the fact that you don't see the ISOC does not mean that the ISOC doesn't do anything! Back to your question : "Is the ISOC involved with this kind of stuff?" I personally think that the answer is (should be?) clearly YES. At least because it should be considered in charge of everything related to the Internet, neither less nor more than any other organization for which it is the umbrella. And, by the way, SPAM is more a societal problem than a technical one... ;) Lynn? Eric Tomson, Administrator and Secretary of the belgian Wallonia Chapter of the ISOC, Member of the PIR .ORG Advisory Council. -----Original Message----- From: owner-ietf@ietf.org [mailto:owner-ietf@ietf.org] On Behalf Of Eric A. Hall on 5/25/2003 2:32 PM Richard Shockey wrote: > I personally attended the FTC hearings on SPAM and there were only 2 > other people in the audience that had any connection to the IETF > whatsoever. The entire body of panelists were lawyers, vendors, > spammers etc. > > No one from the Internet Society was there BTW. Is the ISOC involved with this kind of stuff? I see from http://www.isoc.org/isoc/general/officers/ that they have a VP of Public Policy but I don't know what that means. Anybody? -- Eric A. Hall http://www.ehsco.com/ Internet Core Protocols http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/coreprot/