At this summer's HostingCon, Hirsch and a few associates introduced the Association of Internet and Hosting Service Providers to the hosting community at large, describing a still-nascent organization that was greatly in need of volunteers willing to help craft the policies and procedures that will shape what they hope will become an important force in the hosting business.

Paul Hirsch introduces the AIHSP onstage this summer at HostingCon

But that's still far off. The group expects that the association will be ready to start accepting memberships, complete with fees and other such official business in the early part of 2009. At the moment, things are at a building stage.

Last week, the AIHSP put out an official call for volunteers willing to part five advisory subcommittees it hopes to assemble this month, and furnish with the task of developing a broad swath of policies for the organization.

In an email interview with the WHIR, Hirsch discusses the response they've received so far, as well as other prospects for getting involved, and what he thinks will be expected of the subcommittees during their run.

You put the call out last week. How quickly are the nominations and submissions piling up? Are certain committees attracting more interest than others?

Paul Hirsch: We've received a number of submissions, and we encourage people to nominate themselves if they've not already done so (www.aihsp.org/About-AIHSP/Build-AIHSP.php). We may extend the deadline for submissions into the following week to allow for more entries.

The caliber of the respondents has been quite overwhelming. We've received interest from people representing a wide variety of company types and sizes, as well as from some very high-profile individuals. We find this most encouraging.

Right now, the Standards and Ethics subcommittee is getting the biggest response, followed closely by Industry Representation and Advocacy. We anticipated this would be the case, as the tasks laid out for these group are considerable in size and importance. Given the importance of all subcommittees and our expectation that association leadership may emerge from these groups, we anticipate receiving more responses before nominations are closed.

Approximately how many people do you expect to be on each committee, and how soon do you expect all the committees to be assembled and finalized?

PH: Subcommittees could have as few as five members or as many as 15. We're not setting firm numbers, but too many people will make discussions unmanageable and could be counterproductive. We originally decided on a September 7, 2008 deadline for nominations, but we will post a final date on AIHSP.org (www.aihsp.org) a few days ahead of time in the event we elect to extend it.

How large and difficult a task have you laid out here in terms of choosing committee members from among nominations? Is the response large enough that you'll have to turn down many nominations?

PH: We are prepared to turn down nominations, and we anticipate this will happen. Our approach to selecting subcommittee members will be fairly straightforward. We are basing decisions on time in the industry, specific experience with topics covered by certain subcommittees and willingness to commit to the tasks at hand. Diversity in company types and sizes may play a role in decisions as well. We will have tough decisions to make, and we are prepared to make them as a team.

Are there going to be opportunities to contribute outside of the subcommittees in the immediate or not-too-distant future? Will it be possible to get involved in these subcommittees after the initial members are determined?

PH: We anticipate opening up more subcommittees in the future, and it's possible ones we've already created will split into more focused groups. This is only the beginning for us; I expect there will be plenty of opportunities for applicants to participate in the development of AIHSP in the near future.

During the course of the next few weeks, people may discover they are better suited to work in other areas, or unexpected circumstances may affect individuals' participation. We expect subcommittees to remain fairly intact over the course of their exploratory work, but we're prepared to be flexible with positions within them as well.

Can you give me a general picture of what the schedule will look like for these committees once they've been assembled, and by what means you expect they'll go about communicating and collaborating?

PH: Each subcommittee has a list of objectives its members are expected to cover over the course of the weeks or months they convene. We've set a six-week goal for each subcommittee to cover its objectives, though we may extend the time allotted if there's unfinished business on the table.

Founding committee members will provide oversight and guidance for subcommittees, and each subcommittee will have a chairperson to lead research and deliberation. We expect subcommittees to have regular conference calls, and we will utilize a number of online communication methods to allow subcommittee members to interact and engage in tasks as cohesive units. We expect smaller task forces (two-to-three people at a time) to tackle specific items, and those members will be encouraged to stay in communication with each other through whatever means they prefer.

The end result of each subcommittee's work will be a detailed action plan, and will include procedures and costs associated with the goals each subcommittee explored. These roadmaps will be the keys to our successful launch of association services.