Re: [ga] ALAC comments on proposed Bylaws modifications

[Vittorio Bertola <vb@bertola.eu.org>]

On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 14:16:21 -0800 (PST), you wrote:

>> 2/3 of the ALAC are going to be elected as soon as the RALOs will be
>> formed.
>
>Which really doesn't mean anything.

I agree with your analysis, but Joanna's complaint was that the RALOs
were not going to elect their representatives, and this is false. We
were not discussing whether the ALAC has enough power in ICANN.

If you want to discuss that, my answer is simple: it has not.
Especially, while it might succeed in gaining credibility towards
other ICANN stakeholders and thus convince them to support its
proposals, there is not any real mechanism in ICANN's structure that
offers any warranties for this.

But I still think (as I have been thinking for the last three years)
that ICANN needs a strong global membership to get political
legitimacy, and that the present configuration of ICANN won't last
long. We lost the first battle (the 2000-2002 one) because we weren't
ready and organized yet, so we have to prepare ourselves and be ready
when the next battle will be fought. 

I think that the RALO mechanism is a workable one and thus it can give
us strength - certainly more than depending on ICANN to set up global
discussion, identity verification and voting mechanisms.

>Yesterday a vote came up on the board to provide funds for the interim
>ALAC in Rio.  I voted "yes", to provide those funds.  However, I had
>misgivings, having observed the growth of vibrant at-large groups during
>the election 2+ years ago despite the apathy-approaching-hostility of
>ICANN to such groups, not to mention the non-funding by ICANN to such
>groups, and knowing full well that funding leads to dependency.

This is a real and significant problem - perhaps the major problem
RALOs will have to face. I do not have an answer for this yet -
usually user organizations are financed through membership fees, and
yet I would not like to have high fees. I think that the decentralized
model we have in mind also allows to decentralize costs, so that much
can be done at the local level by volunteers, and "hard money" costs
are kept to a minimum. But the problem remains.
-- 
vb.                  [Vittorio Bertola - vb [at] bertola.eu.org]<---
-------------------> http://bertola.eu.org/ <-----------------------
--
This message was passed to you via the ga@dnso.org list.
Send mail to majordomo@dnso.org to unsubscribe
("unsubscribe ga" in the body of the message).
Archives at http://www.dnso.org/archives.html