First ISOC-CH National Event, 27 November 2012 Summary
Bern, Switzerland – Vice-Chair for Internal Affairs Bernie Hoeneisen opened the first national event of the Swiss Chapter of the Internet Society at the Käfigturm, on 27 November 2012. Members of the ISOC-CH Board that attended included Secretary Alexandre Delage and Treasurer Roque Galliano, who gave a short introduction on ISOC-CH, what the Internet Society does and who it is, and a bit of history about the Swiss Chapter.
Thirty people attended the event, including students, business people, and members of the public.
After a brief mention by Silvia Hagen about the Swiss IPv6 Council, Bernie introduced the speakers: Brian Trammell, a researcher at CSG, ETH Zürich, and Balthasar Glättli, entrepreneur and politician, member of the Swiss Parliament (Greens).
Speaking on “The Open Internet Internet Under Threat” Brian started with a slide on what The Open Internet is…it is “a philosophy as much as it is an architecture, and the network is notionally open, neutral and stateless.” He pointed out that he sees three main threats to the open Internet. These are economic (a closed network is more easily profitable), socio-political (authority over the network is necessary to protect citizens from harm or objectionable activity, enforce the law, and/or ensure state security), and technical (maintaining an open network in the face of growth, diversity, and service evolution is hard). Two statements that Brian made during his talk that resonated with several attendees were, “If you’re not paying for a service, you’re the product” and “We have to trust Google to not be evil.” As he states on his blog (link below), Brian wanted to “start a conversation about the present state of the Internet, and threats to its openness, to figure out where we ISOC people as politically-interested network geeks can make a difference.”
Next, Mr. Glättli presented “ISOC and Federal Politics – what are the issues at stake?” Mr. Glättli shared his concerns on awareness of the relevance of the Internet and related policies, net neutrality, media competence, and post-privacy issues, and other challenges to policy making on topics related to the Internet. He also discussed the education of policy makers and why an educated parliament is so important to making sure the people get the right kind of legislation, based on informed decisions and knowledge of the technology and issues and challenges surrounding it. Mr Glättli announced that during Spring session of the National Parliament he intends to submit a motion to make the requirement for “net neutrality” part of the Swiss law.
After each slide presentation, there were a few questions from members of the audience and a brief discussion which carried on after the meeting during the apéro.
Sponsoring the event were Sunny Connection AG, DIGICOMP, and Ucom Standards Track Solutions GmbH (Ucom.ch). The Internet Society Geneva HQ office provided badges, printed materials, and lanyards.
Slides from the event are shared here: https://www.isoc.ch/events/national-isoc-ch-event-2012-bern
Brian’s blog is: http://www.trammell.ch/2012/11/an-evening-in-bern/
Mr. Glättli’s presentation is posted here: http://prezi.com/hydxc7aazten/isoc-and-federal-politics/ and his facebook page is here: http://www.facebook.com/glaettli.ch You can also find more on his website http://www.balthasar-glaettli.ch
The Internet Society is open to anyone for membership. https://www.isoc.ch/membership
More on the Internet Society: http://www.internetsociety.org/
Future events including the upcoming 2013 Annual General Meeting will be posted at https://www.isoc.ch/
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