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[ga] Why the At Large should reject Denise's structures (IcannatLarge mail for info)


Title: Help
Thanks for this effort Bret.
 
The trouble is that engagement in the ICANN project is muddying the waters and endangering the development of an *independent* At Large movement.
 
This development of the At Large under Denise Michel is in the hands of ICANN, under the authority of the Board. This voice is therefore compromised and *cannot* be the main, independent or in any way credible voice of the At Large.
 
The idea that the At Large should be structured, promoted, and developed WITHIN Icann is a disastrous wrong turning, as the whole issue has been about ICANN's desire to stifle, control or eject critical voices from its organisation.
 
Since this is the battlefront which must be fought - the need and right of ordinary people to criticise the Board and challenge its undemocratic authority - it is wholly unacceptable to allow ICANN to draw the mechanism for challenging it, into a structure that ICANN determines, ICANN directs, and ICANN develops.
 
It is absolutely plain that ICANN is trying to create a 'tame' controllable alternative to the REAL At Large, a kind of 'controlled' pretence of user-involvement, whereas the real independent views of ordinary users are far more threatening to their powerbase and need to challenge the idea that Internet Users should somehow be orchestrated and manipulated 'inside' ICANN structures developed by ICANN.
 
Ordinary Internet Users need their own structures and organisations, and their own independent voice, and the initiative to develop this plain and distinct identity is not helped at all by the appearance of a worldwide user structure *inside* ICANN.
 
A big problem I see is the confusion I think is created when leaders of an independent group like IcannatLarge.org are helping and aiding the development of the ICANN 'pretence' which actually sidetracks and detracts and endangers the likelihood of an independent At Large emerging. ICANN will simply say (like a smiling tiger): "But we already have an At Large, and RALO's etc etc". We are helping them build the very structure which helps legitimise their fasle claim to be representing ordinary users (while expelling User representation from any real power). They will claim that the reasonable and informed At Large already exists and has a home inside their (carefully-controlled) structures.
 
Whereas the truth is that ICANN itself is palpably illegitimate and unrepresentative, has chosen to expel dissenting voices, and clearly and so obviously wants a captured At Large which it can contain.
 
Vittorio and others, by participating in the development of this ICANN agenda being created for ICANN ends, are helping to legitimise the coup which ICANN has been carrying out : I believe that our organisation should be given the chance to vote and decide whether they want to be ICANN insiders supporting the creation of an ICANN At Large, or whether they want to be independent outside voices for the At Large community worldwide of ordinary internet users.
 
Vittorio will say that he is present at these meetings in his guise as ISOC Italy rep but as Chair of IcannAtLarge I feel he is both compromising the goals of that organisation and trying to draw IcannAtLarge.org into the ICANN structure and organisation.
 
I respect Vittorio as a person but I disagree with his apparent strategy. It is playing into the hands of Denise Michel (and for "Denise Michel" read: "The ICANN Board" because she is of course their stooge). Denise has no interest in helping Internet Users form their own independent identity and reclaiming their full number of places on the Board. Denise is carrying out a management task for the ICANN Board. It is clearly a damage-limitation exercise.
 
And we want to *help* ICANN limit the damage to its reputation following the expulsion of elected representation from its Board? We want to *support* Denise Michel carry out her management goals? Denise is out of step and out of tune with the noble, idealistic democratic impulse of the At Large movement, which wamts to protect the Internet for a future generation of people all over the world. Denise is in it for the management and the money and the career. She is the wrong person to be trusting and entrusting with the future of the At Large.
 
I PROPOSE a ballot of the membership of IcannatLarge.org on the following two questions:
 
Do you want IcannatLarge.org to help create RALO's inside ICANN's structures?
YES:
NO:
Abstain:
 
Do you want IcannatLarge.org to help develop an independent user structure outside ICANN's structures, in liaison with other At Large and User Groups?
YES:
NO:
Abstain:
 
These two votes will help determine the future direction of IcannatLarge.org
 
Thank you, and I invite panel members to SECOND the proposal if they wish. To deny the membership a vote on this would indicate to many that an installed leadership is running scared of the views of its own membership. I really urge the panel to give the membership the natural right to determine the future direction of the organisation on this crucial issue. Either we're democratic or we're not.
 
Richard Henderson
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Bret Fausett <fausett@lextext.com>
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 4:45 AM
Subject: [atlarge-discuss] Recordings of Amsterdam Meetings

> MP3 recordings of the At Large meetings in Amsterdam are available at:
>
> Saturday, 15 December 2002
> http://www.lextext.com/atlarge15Dec2002.mp3
>
> Sunday, 16 December 2002
> http://www.lextext.com/atlarge16Dec2002.mp3
>
> If you need help listening to the files or getting them to stream, you may
> find answers here: http://www.lextext.com/mp3FAQ.html
>
>             -- Bret


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