RE: [ga] 6000+ unique At Large Members?

[Joanna Lane <jo-uk@rcn.com>]

Joop Teernstra Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 6:05 PM

> >3) Year 2002: 100+ active participants from the 2001 list rolled over to
> >ICANNAtLarge.com, originally funded by ICANN Staff under the
> leadership of
> >Denise Michel.
>
> Updated information on the funding of icannatlarge.com can be found here:
> www.icannatlarge.com/funding.php
>
> The initial funding was advanced by Pindar Wong, who would be offended to
> be called ICANN staff ......

You are right about Pindar, whom I believe acted with the best of intentions
and used personal funds. No offense intended.

and another $1000 was armtwisted out of
> Esther Dyson,
> (who was not staff either) after she announced that she had $10.000 set
> aside for the At Large organizing.

No. Esther used ALSC surplus funding to secure Denise Michel in a key
position to control the At Large, which she did first by heading up
Icannatlarge.com, later shifting the emphasis to Kent Crispin's operation
at-large.org once that was up and running. There was no arm twisting. It was
Staff approved, if not instigated.
>
> Denise Michel was then appointed by Esther

No. Esther wanted Alexander Svennsson. Denise was Stuart Lynn's choice. She
answered directly to him and from the outset, worked under contract with
ICANN as a member of Staff.


  and put on the ICANN/ALAC
> payroll well after the icannatlarge.com effort had been started
> in February
> 2002, clearly in an attempt to do an end-run around  icannatlarge.

No. See above. The end run was planned much earlier. ICANN manipulates
proactively, not reactively.

> The publicly signed-up members of icannatlarge should not be
> confused with
> the unknown 6000 people on Denise Michel's announce list.

If ICANN were really serious about the At Large, which it is not, then an
OUTREACH POLICY to foster fresh blood for a thriving user community would
have been adopted already. The absence of funding for the At Large, (save
executive expense accounts for internet professionals to travel the 5 star
hotels), speaks volumes about the willingness of other stakeholder groups to
unreservedly include real representatives of the user community in its key
decision making processes. Clearly, this is a not an option that is
available to the genuine At Large community, and probably never was. But
what it leaves behind, is the difficult task of filling in for insufficient
At Large members with zero incentives to hand to attract the numbers in
foreseeable future.

In effect, ICANN Reform of the At Large has reduced it to the rather
questionable level of claiming the members of other groups as its own, which
nicely muddies the waters on which to build a facade.

Regards,
Joanna

>
> -joop-
>
>

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