Sam,
Sam Hartman wrote:
"Bob" == Bob Hinden <bob.hinden@xxxxxxxxx> 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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