The Internet is a network of networks, so it can only work by voluntary efforts. Our vision is to keep the Internet governance ecosystem decentralized, collaborative, and multistakeholder-based by demonstrating the value of this approach and strengthening the role of the Internet Society as a trusted steward of the Internet. One of our priorities is to ensure the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders are respected. For example, governments should not interfere with the day-to-day technical management of the Internet. This notably implies ensuring the independence of the Internet’s technical standards-setting processes, such as those within the Internet Engineering Task Force—which we promote as a model of multistakeholder processes.
Collaborating with the IETF as it updates its administrative structure, we will maintain strong substantive ties. These will ensure that work in the IETF and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) informs the work in the Internet Society and vice versa. Moreover, we will help promote the work of the IETF to raise awareness among potential participants, and among policy makers who may not participate in the IETF, but whose work will benefit from understanding its role in the Internet ecosystem.
Beyond the IETF, we will support other communities that are key to the Internet. For example, we expect to continue to organize regular meetings to promote cooperation and coordination among the Internet’s various technical bodies, such as the Regional Internet Registries and ICANN. We will also follow closely work in these organizations that affect the Internet’s collaborative governance approach. Finally, in order to ensure that our efforts to develop leadership in the Internet community are successful, we will undertake a broad evaluation of all our Fellow and Ambassador programs to look for overall unity of purpose. A proposal for how to proceed will be available no later than Q3.
In addition, we need to be vigilant in 2019 that new regulations to address emerging technologies do not result in harming the Internet. For this, we will work to make Internet-related governmental processes more collaborative and multistakeholder-based. The end goal of this effort is to ensure these processes lead to sound policies that support the open, global Internet.
Finally, we will work to promote the spread of the culture of multistakeholder governance. This will include using the Internet Society’s standing in forums such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and the OECD. We will engage with national governments to encourage the application of the multistakeholder framework within their own policy setting processes. And, we will promote the multistakeholder approach by supporting participation by the technical community in key governmental discussions that could impact the Internet, providing information to Internet Society Members and Chapters to assist work with their own governments, and training key stakeholders on how to be effective participants in collaborative governance discussions.
We will measure our work in this area by the extent to which the multistakeholder approach is adopted by governmental processes related to the Internet. For example, we will assess whether forums such as the G20 and G7 are more inclusive, and the degree to which national governments engage in multistakeholder approaches on topics such as best practices for the Internet of Things. We will also directly measure the participation in programs such as the Policy Guests to the IETF, and whether our multistakeholder training program results in students putting skills learned in those workshops to use in their local environments.
One of the venues for collaboration across the Internet community has been the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), including various national IGFs. The Internet Society has observed more than once that the global IGF, in particular, would benefit from certain reforms. However, there have not been tangible changes to date. Increasingly, discussions about the most pressing issues facing the Internet are held outside the IGF, and these venues are often not as open or inclusive of a wide range of stakeholders. To be good stewards of our resources, in 2019 we will evaluate our level of staff participation in the global IGF, particularly considering its effectiveness in adapting to the changing global environment. We will also consider other opportunities that may be more effective in influencing global Internet policy issues. This revised approach will be prepared before the middle of 2019.
We believe mobilizing people around the world is key to ensuring the Internet’s future and that strengthening and increasing support for our membership community is key to the Internet Society’s success. Therefore, bringing together and engaging with our community, especially our Members and Chapters, is one of our highest priorities. Beyond these, our Special Interest Groups, joined with innovative young leaders we support and Internet pioneers we recognize, form a uniquely broad coalition united in realizing the Internet Society’s vision that the Internet is for everyone.
Our work is shaped by the understanding that community is much more than belonging to something; it’s about doing something together that makes belonging matter. Yet this is an aspiration we have not consistently achieved. Therefore, in 2019 we will improve our community engagement work by providing inclusive and innovative ways to involve our Community at all levels of our work to advance our mission and strategic objectives. We will continue to support Chapters as they make key contributions to our global priorities at the local level. We will reinvigorate our relationship with Organization Members and Partners as well as Individual Members, and we will develop our relationship with Civil Society to more closely align shared interests and priorities to increase the reach and impact of the Internet Society.
In order to achieve these goals, we will complete the realignment of staff functions in order to put membership support and Chapter support together. The effectiveness of the organizational change will be measured in engagement with Chapters (including the health ranking of Chapters) and the successful implementation of an improved organizational membership experience. That improved experience is expected to make organizational membership more attractive, which will be indicated by increased member numbers and increased revenue from members.
Creating and fostering connections and engagement across our global community is equally important. We will build links among the Internet Society community through our support of the work of the Chapters Advisory Council, and by funding and developing resources and activities such as regional events and fellowship programs to enhance Chapters’ capacities and increase Chapters’ abilities to act as advocates for the Internet. Strengthened Regional Bureaus will serve as important conduits and catalysts for integrating and tailoring local priorities, perspectives, and capabilities into Internet Society activities and processes.
We will also more closely connect our Individual Members, Organization Members, Partners, and staff by fostering ways for members to engage with each other to develop, promote, and advocate for real-world best practices that support our activities and campaigns. This will include strengthening the integration of the Online Trust Alliance Initiative in our global community to provide a model for collaborative and focused engagement that we believe should be adopted and replicated in other areas of the Internet Society’s work. More broadly, and developed in collaboration with the Organization Members Advisory Council, a strategic partnership model for Organization Members and Partners will provide an avenue for organizational engagement and participation in our work and provide diversification of revenue. Individual Members are another critical part of our community: they are our feet on the ground supporting our mission and objectives across the globe. We will develop an individual membership recruitment and engagement plan to rebuild and expand our membership.
It is apparent that there are activities that many of our members and Chapters do not have the resources to do themselves, but that would benefit many of them. For example, many Chapters and members are inexpert in applying for funds available for their activities. In the first quarter of 2019, we will undertake an analysis of the feasibility of offering a “service bureau” function for the benefit of our Chapters and members. The global range of issues that the target audience may face may present challenges, but we will continue to look for ways that the Internet Society staff can better serve our wider community.
Beyond our membership, we will work to increase awareness with Civil Society organizations about the value of the Internet in advancing their work. We will engage with Civil Society more actively and consistently in multistakeholder discussions and in alignment with Internet Society priorities and programs. Our work on Sustainable Development will continue to show the impact of the Internet in the achievement and acceleration of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals through building partnerships and reaching communities that depend on the Internet to make a positive change in people’s lives.
Doing work without letting anyone know about it does not encourage others to participate in the work. We have a refreshed brand identity, an improved ability to execute on communications activities, and a stronger external focus, so now we must make our communications more effective. We have the opportunity to ensure the Internet Society is the champion of the global Internet and the organization to which the world looks for direction in shaping its future.
In 2019, we will make our communications efforts more effective, speaking out clearly and boldly. Coordination and consistency will bring greater profile and focus to our global and regional presence. Clarity will ensure our messages are better and more broadly understood, ensuring more people have heard the changes we want. Boldness allows us to cut through others’ noise and lead the way in achieving the outcomes we seek. We will work harder to place our work in the rapidly shifting global context, focusing on a mix of stronger messaging, improved use of digital channels, greater media engagement, and the creation of innovative and news-driven content that places us at the heart of important conversations about the Internet.
Our communications outputs will be carefully and strategically aligned with our organizational priorities and will be aimed at delivering the outcomes we wish to see across our programmatic focus areas. We will set specific, detailed targets and metrics for defined communications activities and workstreams. These will be drawn up on a case-by-case basis as part of our communications planning. For example, in planning for our engagement around a key conference, we may set a communications target of 2-3 C-level media interviews and resulting coverage in relevant publications. A related metric may be that conference delegates reference, share, or amplify that coverage and reflect our message in their actions and outputs at the conference.
Beyond measuring at this granular level, we also will use high-level communications metrics for 2019 as a benchmark and management tool for evaluating the impact we are having more broadly. We will measure:
– Website Engagement. We will measure the quality and quantity of traffic to our website, targeting 3+million page views in 2019, with a significant proportion on our campaign pages.
– Media Footprint. Building on our use of traditional PR measurement tools (e.g. reach, net sentiment, message penetration) and the baseline measures established in 2018, we will track the value we create through media exposure and other earned channels, targeting quarter by quarter growth in qualitative and quantitative results and a 5% increase in performance by year end.
– Social Engagement. As an extension of the social listening that we already carry out, we will improve alignment of our global and regional messaging, training, channel segmentation, influencer identification, and engagement with users. The success of this strategic drive will be measured by tracking against an average user engagement rate of 1.3% by June 30th, and 1.4% by December 31st, 2019.
– Brand Health. Here we will set a composite benchmark and scoring system early in 2019 against which to measure our effectiveness and influence as an organization. Our brand health will be represented by a single consolidated metric made up of the multiple different measures we have across our social, PR/media and website communications disciplines. Through aggregation and analysis of these metrics, we will look to provide insight into our brand reputation, awareness, brand equity and brand positioning, targeting an increase of at least 3% in brand health by the end of 2019.
In this way, we can gauge our effectiveness through the impact of our global brand, the extent to which our messages are positively conveyed in the media, the levels of engagement we achieved on social media, and the reach of our online presence. Understanding these results will help us to deliver on our broader Strategic Communications objectives of building our global brand and reputation around the world, expanding our sphere of influence, and becoming better known as the organization that provides direction in ensuring that the Internet continues to exist as a resource to enrich people’s lives, and as a force for good in society.
