[ga] Repost From: [ALSC-Forum] Substance over rhetoric - a constructive challenge

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

All assembly members,

  The following is a post I am copying to the GA members for their
review and consideration.  I think you will fine it interesting
and hopefully thought provoking given the recent events in Accra...

================  Copy from the ALSC Forum starts here ============

Esther and all stakeholders or interested parties,

Esther Dyson wrote:

> [sorry for any double-postings]

  Same here...

>
>
> Substance over Rhetoric:

  Good idea Esther, unfortunately you comments and/or remarks
didn't quite make the grade.  (See more below)

>
>
> A constructive challenge to the ICANN board, staff and other involved parties.
>
> Yesterday the board of ICANN approved continued work on an At-Large
> membership “mechanism” and stated that it “wishes to move forward with
> energy and enthusiasm to build a meaningful structure for informed
> participation by the full range of Internet users, and seeks avenues to
> achieve these objectives that are bottom-up, self-organized, and
> self-sustaining.”

  Yes this was in the ICANN press release on the ICANN web site.
Thank you for repeating it here.  What it doesn't say is far more
important
that what it does say however.  That interesting omission is that
Participation
is not the same as a voice AND a VOTE.

>
>
> I would like to take these words at their face value and, before leaving
> Accra, make some concrete suggestions for moving forward.

  Unfortunately the "Face Value" is of little value given the history
of the ICANN BoD, staff, and now the ALSC...  These words
say precious little and have even less meaning to already participating
stakeholders/users.  I hope you, Esther don't believe that the
press is that stupid.  ???  Certainly you already KNOW that the
participating stakeholders, some congress persons, and now
as I understand it, even the President are not this stupid...

> It’s obvious that
> ICANN itself has few resources (whatever its intentions) to move the ALM
> forward, and indeed the major activity needs to come bottom-up, from the
> community itself.

  The community has already done so long ago.
see: 
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/proposals/ineginc/ineginc.htm
Yes new efforts have been underway.  They have been documented
on the Atlargestudy.org archives on a number of occasions,
see:http://www.atlargestudy.org/forum_archive/index.shtml

>  There is no staff person with spare time to dedicate to
> this effort, and from the community side, there are feelings ranging from
> betrayal and hostility to indifference.  How can we mend this situation?

  First thin to do is to pay attention to ongoing and existing efforts,
instead if ignoring them as the ICANN staff and BoD has done
for over two years now.  Second is to be honest with the
stakeholders/users.  Third is to comprehend adequately.

>
>
> For starters, this message is an attempt at transparency and
> concreteness.  Other than noncommittal discussions with Alexander Svensson
> (more below) and a couple of the ALSC members, I have not lined up support
> for these proposals. So these ideas are fresh and unvetted: I hope that
> those of you I am addressing directly will respond in kind, with ccs to all…

  Esther, you are way late and not exactly honest in your efforts as has
been pointed out time and time again on the Atlargestudy.org forum.

>
>
> The basic idea is to move forward in tangible ways with the formation of a
> coherent, tangible At-Large membership, supported by a fulltime, committed,
> paid individual staffer as well as volunteer efforts.

 It is clear that more than one staffer will be needed and as we have
seen
with the volunteer work from the ICANN staff, great care must be taken
where and how volunteers are deployed.

>
>
> It will require funding from a variety of parties (we cannot depend on
> ICANN alone) and some concrete actions.

We [INEGroup] are already funded.  Other efforts that again have been
well documented on the atlargestudy.org forum, the DNSO GA forum
and a variety of other forums as well.

>  This does not require broad
> consensus, but rather the actions of a few parties who I hope can
> ultimately gather broad support for their efforts. The Board on its
> side  is lukewarm/negative on elections, but willing for the most part to
> respond to evidence of a committed, transparent, issue-focused At-Large
> that could provide constructive input representing the public interest in
> ICANN policies (aside from its own role).

  The main role of any at-large effort or organization is to elect 9
members
of the ICANN BoD.  That in Accra the BoD rejected.  Hence having
a meaningful voice and VOTE in the policy decision making process
of ICANN has been set back significantly.

>
>
> I’d like to suggest the following:
>
> ICANN hires Alexander Svensson to manage At-Large outreach for the next
> year.

  There are many that have done much more the Alexander Svensson.
But he would be a fairly good choice.
Here is our short list:
Eric Dierker, Bob Davis, Joanna Lane, Danny Younger, Jeffrey Williams
(Myself), Roeland Mayer, Jay Fenello, Dave Farber and Patrick Corliss...

>  This position will be funded (here’s the challenge!) by my $10,000
> pledge, matched by institutions such as Harvard’s Berkman Center (which
> spent at least that much to send its own team to Ghana to observe the
> recent meeting), Markle, Bertelsmann, and the like, and a variety of
> interested companies who at least in principle have supported the notion of
> an At-large membership.  And perhaps even ICANN can allocate a small sum
> with “energy and enthusiasm.”

  Oh so the challenge has strings, your $10k eh?  How magnanimous of
you!
How about all the others that have put forth pledges for
http://www.icannatlarge.com/
or http://www.icannatlarge.org/ or http://www.icann-int-atlarge.org/ or
Our (INEGroup] currently with funding of $16.8m, 121k+ members a global
voting system, and a paid staff or http://www.apatlarge.org/

>
>
> I have talked with Alexander. He is a PhD student from Hamburg, Germany,
> who is studying ICANN and is currently chairman of the DNSO  General
> Assembly. With some encouragement from a few more people, I think he would
> be willing to serve.  So far, he has demonstrated himself to be impartial
> and sensible and  has the calm, unassuming personality that should enable
> him to do this job effectively.

  Well I cannot attest to Alexanders impartiality.  And I think that
Thomas
Rossler is the Chair of the DNSO GA? See: http://www.dnso.org/
for further information...

>  His first task would be to take over from
> Denise Michel (the executive director of the ALSC) all the communications,
> databases, lists of interested parties and other connections that will
> enable the transformation of the ALSC  At-Large Study Committee  into an
> At-Large Organizing effort.  Denise has agreed to help with the transition.

  Very nice of Denise to offer.  >;)

>
>
> Once settled in, he should get in touch with all the individuals and
> organizations interested in furthering the At-Large and help them to
> self-organize. In addition, he will manage the online discussion (my
> suggestion is for one reference list, completely uncensored except for
> spam) and one or two moderated lists that ideally will focus on ICANN
> substance  things such as name-registration policies and international
> domain names  as well as on the role of the At-Large.

  Good suggestion and one that we [INEGRoup] made back in 1999,
as well as was made in 2001 by Eric Dierker as well...

>
>
> Ideally, the At-Large discussion should be focused on ICANN policies rather
> than just winning a seat at the table.

  Wrong approach Esther.  Without a seat at the table, the stakeholders
can too easily be ignored or viewed as a nuisance...  You have this
just backwards I am afraid!

> Alexander may choose to present a
> variety of topics, offering substance and questions for discussion (for
> example, how should new TLDs be chosen, if at all?), making the At-Large a
> forum for learning as well as expression of opinions.
>
> Alexander should also act as a liaison/staff to those ICANN Board members
> who wish to work with him, so that the At-Large can have an additional,
> active channel/advocate with the Board.
>
> What happens after that?  A lot is still up in the air, with the board
> meeting in a private retreat in the next month or two, followed by the
> Bucharest board meeting at the end of June.  At the same time, there will
> be actions and statements by a variety of other parties, including various
> governments, and responses to the Lynn “reform” proposal.
>
> An incipient At-Large membership should be part of that mix.  The
> discussions moderated by Alexander should help determine where it all goes.
>
> So, I challenge all of you to support such an effort…or to come up with
> better or additional activities.  Thank you for your attention.
>
> Please reply with any questions or constructive comments.
>
> Esther Dyson
>
> BACK TO THE FRONTIER - this year's PC FORUM with
> Craig Barrett, Rick Belluzzo, Eric Schmidt... and you!
> www.pcforum2002.com/pcforum/speakers.cfm
> March 24 to 26
>
> Esther Dyson                    Always make new mistakes!
> chairman, EDventure Holdings
> writer, Release 3.0 (on Website below)
> edyson@edventure.com
> 1 (212) 924-8800    --   fax  1 (212) 924-0240
> 104 Fifth Avenue (between 15th and 16th Streets; 20th floor)
> New York, NY 10011 USA
> http://www.edventure.com

Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup - (Over 121k members/stakeholdes strong!)
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
Contact Number:  972-244-3801 or 214-244-4827
Address: 5 East Kirkwood Blvd. Grapevine Texas 75208

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