Iswe statement on Deborah Foulkes case

Introduction

In December 2021, Deborah Foulkes, made claims of Intellectual property thefts against the Sortition Foundation with regards to the sortition methodology used for the selection of the Assembly members of the 2021 Global Assembly designed by the Sortition Foundation (a delivery partner of the 2021 Global Assembly).

Since then, the complainant, Deborah Foulkes, has addressed various complaints against several individuals involved in either the delivery or the evaluation of the 2021 Global Assembly. 

Iswe has created this page to be able to deal in a coherent and transparent manner with the volume of communications that the complainant publishes relating to this matter. 

If Iswe has sent you the link to this page it is likely because we believe the complainant has contacted you, or is likely to do so, or you are in a forum where she is posting about this matter. 

This statement aims to clarify Iswe’s position on this complaint.

Iswe’s statement

In December 2021, the complainant Deborah Foulkes emailed several people from the Global Assembly core team as well as the two chairs of the advisory governance committees of the Global Assembly. In her email, she claimed she was a victim of Intellectual Property theft with regards to the sortition methodology used for the selection of the Assembly members of the Global Assembly designed by the Sortition Foundation (a delivery partner of the 2021 Global Assembly).

An investigation indicated that an appropriate mediation service for this claim could be the UK Intellectual Property Office, which is designed to manage disputes of this kind at an early stage. 

In March 2023, we understand that the Sortition Foundation offered Deborah Foulkes to enter a mediation process through the UK Government’s Intellectual Property Mediation, but this didn't happen because the complainant imposed a precondition to see written documentation from Sortition Foundation, in order to proceed with the mediation process.  Our understanding is that exchange of documents is one matter that would normally have been left to be controlled by the mediator.

In June 2023, the Sortition Foundation published a statement, which is available from this link.

Iswe’s position on this complaint is that it should be dealt with by the Sortition Foundation, since the substance of the complaint, Intellectual Property theft, was solely directed to the Sortition Foundation. 

Contact

If you would like to contact Iswe about this, you are welcome to do so via email: hello@iswe.org.