request to ALAC for public forum
The ICANN "public forum" is scheduled to start in less than 3 hours, and the Board of Directors is scheduled to meet on Friday, in less than 2 days. ICANN's Bylaws require that the agenda for each Board meeting be posted 7 days in advance. No agenda for the Board meeting Friday has been posted. And no reason has been given why it would not have been possible to post at least a partial and/or tentative agenda. For previous face-to-face Board meetings, ICANN has provided an e-mail address like "argentina@xxxxxxxxx" or "rio@xxxxxxxxx" for remote submissions to the public forum and the Board. No such address, and no other means of remote participation, has been provided for the "public forum" today and tomorrow. There is a Webcast, but that is a passive, one-way means of broadcasting, and does not provide any channel for "participation". The logical point of contact for questions about public participation would be ICANN's "Manager of Public Participation", which is required by the Bylaws. So far as I can tell from the ICANN Web site, this position is vacant. There is no person or e-mail address designated on the ICANN Web site for issues related to public participation. In my capacity as a journalist, I wanted to ask about this at ICANN's press conference yesterday, so that I could inform my readers how they could participate in the public forum, and what issues would be discussed by the Board. But despite written promises from both ICANN staff responding to the "press@xxxxxxxxx" e-mail address, and ICANN's public relations contractor in Wellington, I was not told when the press conference would be held until several hours after it had ended, and I was not given the remote participation information. So it is impossible for the public to know what issues the Board is going to consider on Friday. And even if we did know, it is impossible for us to comment on them unless we are in Wellington. Even if an agenda were to be posted instantly, and even if cost were no object, it would be too late for me to get to Wellington before the end of the public forum tomorrow. This is not a valid "public forum" within the meaning of the Bylaws, and any "meeting" of the Board of the Board on Friday -- with neither an agenda posted 7 days in advance, nor a public forum on the issues to be discussed -- will not be a valid meeting. Since there is no means for me to participate remotely in the "public forum", I request that the ALAC raise this issue with the Board, publicly, during the "public forum", so that the Board and other observers in Wellington are aware that members of the community who aren't physically present in Wellington are being excluded from the "public forum", and have questioned the legitimacy of the "public forum" today and tomorrow and the scheduled Board meeting on Friday. -------------------- Edward Hasbrouck edward@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://hasbrouck.org +1-415-824-0214 "The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World" (3rd edition, 2004) "The Practical Nomad Guide to the Online Travel Marketplace" http://www.practicalnomad.com |