Re: Paying our way

["Vinton G. Cerf" <[e-mail]>]

Stef,


One of the primary values of the proposal that Carl and Steve have
put forward is that the IETF work can go forward on a largely self-organized
basis. The ISOC Trustees only need to become involved when, for instance,
the process board is unable to resolve some matter (I may be over-simplifying,
but please bear with this). It has never been my thought that the ISOC
board should take on TECHNICAL leadership for the Internet evolution -
perhaps you disagree with that assumption and this might color our 
respective views. 

The Internet Society, if it is to succeed, must offer a multi-faceted
program of conferences, workshops, publications, outreach to communities
not yet aware of or involved in the use of the Internet. The Trustees
have an organizational responsibility to facilitate these programs. 
As in all other volunteer organizations that I am familiar with, the
Internet Society must depend to a very great extent on the voluntary
efforts of its members who do the actual substance of the Society's
programs. This is certainly true of IETF where it is clear that the
bulk of the work occurs in the voluntary working groups.

In any effort of the potential scope of the Internet Society, let
alone the IETF, it is equally critical to have some full-time staff
to lubricate and keep track of these various efforts. I take a great
deal of pride in the work of staff members at CNRI who provide this
kind of service for IETF, and similar pride in the work of people
at EDUCOM and CNRI who serve the members of the Internet Society.
The current trustees and officers of the Internet Society have 
accepted a major challenge - the organization of a new professional
society which can appeal to a very wide range of interests. When you
ask about leadership for the IETF from the trustees, I wonder whether
you are mixing up what the process board and technical board should
be doing and what the trustees need to do? Clearly, the trustees need
to be aware of the scope and direction of the standardization effort
and effective spokespersons for the value of that work (have you 
ever heard Tony Rutkowski addressing other standards bodies on the
subject of IETF - he's a ball of fire of support for it). But it is
not clear to me that all trustees must or even should be technically
involved in the standards activities. The needs of the Internet
Society, as an organization, extend to fund-raising, membership growth,
organizing a variety of volunteer activites, setting up of regional
activities (possibly local or regional chapters), publications, 
conferences, workshops, liaison with other organizations with related
interests. I am sure you can add more to this list. 

There is an enormous amount of work to do and plenty to go on every
plate. There is a great deal more that could be done within the
Society context, but it depends on the membership and their ideas and
willingness to volunteer to really happen. 

I hope readers on this list will take a moment to ask themselves what
more they can do to assure the long-term health of the Internet itself
and the health of the Internet Society which, in part, is trying to
provide organizational support for the IETF.

Vint