[ga] IcannAtLarge Outreach Brainstorming Session
Title: Help (For open information : copy of mail to panel and discuss lists of
IcannAtLarge, kicking off a discussion on Outreach to internet users, to promote
representation of ordinary internet users in the governance and administration
of the Internet.)
In order to claim that we represent ordinary users and the internet public,
we need to increase our membership significantly. Otherwise we will be
marginalised as a minority group, whereas the constituency we seek to promote
and represent is in fact millions strong and deserves to have a critical
executive role in the administration of the DNS and the future development of
the Internet.
ICANN being ICANN, the true voice of the internet majority will always be
sidelined (particularly if it challenges ICANN policy) unless it
negotiates/determines from a position of numerical strength. Size of membership
is what ICANN will most truly fear, because the larger and wider our membership,
the stronger our claim to be truly representative.
Therefore, the premiss behind the ideas I'm posting (below) is that
mass-recruitment is essential, and that we broaden our remit beyond mere
"technical mission of ICANN" (which will never attract more than a few thousand)
to become an organisation upholding the interests of the individual in the
Internet, ranging from the way it is run, to consumer issues, to freedom and
justice. Only if we embrace the issue of "The Future of the Internet" - as it
impacts on individuals, families, communities with all their various interests -
will we be relevant to many and grow significantly in numbers.
The following Outreach ideas are not meant to be wholly rational and
"sensible" in the first instance. They are intended to provoke thought, incite
comment, and are basically a brainstorming exercise so we can explore
collectively the ways we might achieve a broader membership. Some ideas you may
quite like. Some, you may rule out completely.
I take the view that most significant Outreach will take place at a
national or local level, and I regard it as axiomatic that we press forward with
establishing representatives for each country, and websites to accompany that
representation wherever possible.
OUTREACH IDEAS:
Possible points of access and recruitment:
1. Through University and College Internet Societies and IT departments,
with a view to a student membership and network. This could be a worldwide
feature of our movement, but could be promoted best at national level, with a
view to sending speakers to various campuses. I believe in the idealism of young
people, and they are a vital recruitment zone.
2. Through Trade Union movements, interest groups, and already-established
organisations at local and national level. We should demonstrate the importance
of a "free" Internet run by people for people, not dominated by big business. We
should demonstrate the link between organisations' interests and the future and
freedom of the Internet. We should seek to affiliate with these pre-existent
organisations and networks, and seek the representation and involvement of their
memberships. It may indeed be possible to 'capture' whole membership lists of
organisations, and link up via e-mail to significantly enlarge our
representation of individuals.
3. Through a "map" approach, starting with the world, and divisible down to
country and town level, seeking to encourage representation from every town that
has internet access (and indeed, indirectly, seeking representation from those
villages and communities that don't). This would be a very graphic method of
demonstrating our scale, scope and purpose - as an organisation speaking for
ordinary people from every corner of the globe.
4. Through conventional coverage and development of links with press and
media, working particularly at national and local level. Publicity and Marketing
are essential, and strategies should be consciously developed, targetting
opportunities and planning the timescale and levels of publicity which will be
most beneficial. However, we should never fall into the trap of 'spin'
superceding 'substance', and we should always put integrity and truth before
image and soundbite.
5. Identifying certain key movements, whether Green organisations,
religious/cultural groups, UN organisations, commerce or small business groups.
Working out the "interface" and common ground on which to approach them, and
demonstrating how the future of the internet (and its administration) is vital
to them.
6. Negative strategies. I believe it would be very useful to analyse,
develop, and summarise for publicity, some of the most glaring failures, abuses,
and controversies ICANN and its close allies have been guilty of. This is all
part of the process of conviction and argument and recruitment (rest assured,
ICANN would not hesitate to do the same to us). Clearly, this negative
sub-category would merely be a small argument in our prevailing positive
message.
7. "Themed" initiatives. For example, you develop an initiative called
"Schools of the World" linking to the theme "Sharing the Future : the Internet
for All Our Children". In a similar vein to the "map" approach, you try to
spread out and involve as many schools worldwide as possible. (This would be
facilitated if we constructed links with eg Teachers' Unions etc.) We try to get
a teacher representive (or more than one) and we link to
interest/education/freedom issues and information. Setting up (from simple
beginnings) a global movement like this would extend the scope of our
membership, the importance of a free internet for all children, and the great
thing about schools is that they are so closely knitted into their communities
in so many places.
8. Club membership and affiliation : the world is full of clubs, hobbies,
interests etc. Set up lists of organisations, listed geographically and by
subject/category. Approach clubs through national and local representatives.
Explain how the Internet and its future matters for them. Encourage even just
ONE representative to join our organisation (and of course, develop from there
to involve the rest of their membership list).
9. Exploiting the mass-following of sport worldwide. Sport is an interface
which is worldwide. It can be an image of worldwide friendship, involvement and
things we have in common. And the Internet is a meeting place, a linking place,
and a place for supporters and players. Take Football for example : using the
same "map" method, you could try to create a link and representative with as
many clubs as possible in every country on the planet... "The Internet Future :
is YOUR club represented yet?" Sport is high-profile. Sport uses the Internet.
Clubs may be willing to exchange links. And supporters might join up so that
their own teams are represented in this worldwide process of
representation.
10. Dialogue and Targetting Interested Parties. For example, analysis of
whois lists enables me to see who are the most active domain registrants in the
.info and .biz roll-outs. Why not enter into dialogue with some of these?
Similarly, at local and national level, why not analyse, identify and engage
webmasters, IT workers, interested groups or businesses? In this area we might
not enrol such high numbers, but we would be attracting a more informed group,
and a membership with the kinds of skills we could use.
CONCLUSION.
If you've read all this, I applaud your stamina. You could probably think
of another 10 initiatives in place of these. What I'm doing here is more of a
"vision" thing than a "practical logistics" thing. And these ideas may be kicked
into touch by one or all. I'm just brainstorming.
But the point I'm trying to make is : without a substantial membership, our
influence is limited and our claims can be marginalised in the very area we
argue most strongly - representation.
And yet, if we broaden our scope a little, while keeping ICANN/DNS/"How the
Internet is Run" as a central project, we can create the kind of scale and
representation (and global representation too) which ICANN knows will have the
moral authority to demand representation and executive power.
The Internet is a Worldwide resource for all the ordinary people of the
world. The people of the world have a right to determine its development and its
future. That's simple democracy. And much as Mr Sims loves to rule out
"global democracy" along these lines, what we are proposing here is in fact
something idealistic and about freedom and the reality - that the internet has
truly become something that belongs to ALL the people of the world. Its ideas,
its dreams, its freedom, its sorrows, its charities, its projects... it is this
power for such great good, and for bringing ordinary individual people
together.
The concept of global representation, and the right of the millions upon
millions of ordinary people to have a priority over big business in the
decisions taken over the development of the Internet : this is an ideal which is
waiting to be turned into a reality. Because it is an ideal (and a beautiful
ideal too, because the Internet is growing so many creative opportunities for
ordinary people) it will face opposition from those tired, grey, sordid
power-brokers for whom the control of the net is more about "control" and
"vested interest" and "power"...
But the Internet has unleashed a different kind of power, creative,
democratic, subversive of dishonesties and stolen power.
So... however impractical some of my brainstorming ideas may seem... I
invite you to tell ME, in reply, the ways YOU think we can "grow" a membership
which truly, and authoritatively, represents the interests of the ordinary
people of the internet - millions and millions of them.
Faced with a movement that grows exponentially, and embraces openness and
democracy, ICANN will find it very hard indeed to exclude its greatest
constituency.
Richard Henderson |