Re: [alac] Nominations for Chair

["Jacqueline Morris" <jam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Sebastian
Jacqueline

On 3/13/06, Sebastian Ricciardi <sricciardi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> I´m sending you the answers of the questions posted in the list. If you
> are
> expecting some kind of debate, I´m not sure than that could happen, since
> Annette and I have a common view on the main things. Moreover, if she
> became
> elected after these weeks, I would be happy to assist her in any way I
> could, to ensure that we fulfil our role and accomplish our challenging
> objectives. Now, to the questions:
>
> 1) Why do you want to be the ALAC Chair?
>
> Because Vittorio is resigning and I beleive we need to get better
> organized
> and make a better use of our resources.
>
> I think we are now entering into a different stage of our work : In the
> beggining, nobody thought we could attract cany organizations form around
> the world. The challenge was to get those organizations on board. Now, we
> have almost 55 applications received, most of them already certified, and
> the challenge is how to assure their real involvement into the policy
> development process. While it is true that some of them are active
> participants, others, and mainly those coming from non-english-speaking
> countries could be more engaged.
>
> It is also true that ICANN is facing a crisis right now. With governments
> claiming a stronger role in the public policy issues related to the
> Internet, ICANN needs to sort out how to fulfill these needs. And as in
> every crisis this represents threats and oportunitties. The same goes for
> ALAC: If ICANN will be reformed, we need to be sure that the voice of
> users
> won´t be shutted once again. We deserve a strong role in this process, and
> it is really up to us to perform that role.
>
> This will be an exciting time for ALAC, and I would like to be the Chair
> in
> this period.
>
> 2) How much time do you think you can devote to serving as ALAC Chair?}
>
> 10 hs per week.
>
> 3) Which part of the ALAC mandate are you most interested in?
>
> Outreach and Policy are both impotant issues. We need to be sure that the
> user is well represented in the policy development proces, and, in this
> line
> of thinking, they are both faces of the same coin. However, in this
> chicken
> and egg situation, I beleive that it is of utmost importance to bring on
> as
> much organizations as we can. And this is why I see outreach as a key
> aspect
> of our work: having many organizations form all around the world, from
> different cultures, with different ideas, could result in a number of
> insights and new aspects of the policy issues that we were not aware of.
> The
> richness of our analysis and opinions will be enlarged. Moreover, having
> as
> many organizations - and individuals - as we can involved in the process
> will alzo provide some aditional legitimacy for our work. This has not to
> be
> this way, but it is a fact that members from other ICANN constituencies
> will
> take better any advice coming from a group of sixty organizations
> representing a number of user from around the world than the sole opinion
> of
> 15 individuals. I do beleive it is possible to build a structured and
> infomred way of participation, although I am also convinced that the
> actual
> frameworl is improvable.
>
> 4) What is, in your opinion, the most important part of the Chair's job?
>
> There is not a single important thing, but rather a number of tasks that I
> consider to be of utmost importance in the chair´s role:
>
> a. Try to settle different views and make arguing parties to see the merit
> of other´s opinion, looking for consensus.
> b. Being a relenteless motion force: push the items under discussion to
> make
> sure that we can tackle most of the matters that really interest to the
> individual internet user.
> c. Be aware of individuals capabilities and make sure that those
> capacities
> are well used by the cmt.
> d. Interact with different consituencies to explore new avenues of work.
> e. To assure mechanism of open participation in the ALAC work.
> f. Assure transparency and inclusiveness of ALAC discussions.
> g. Deal with organizational issues.
>
> 5) What is the most important objective that you think the ALAC should
> reach
> in the next year, and in the mid term?
>
> We need to start deploying RALOs in a short period of time, and we need to
> sort out a way of moving forward in those regions where RALO seems almost
> impossible or inapplicable. We need to asure that individual participation
> will be allowed, in the short term. We should continue providing our input
> to the PDP process. The main objective in the medium term should be to
> assure that ALAC opinion will be well considered and really talking into
> account.
>
> 6) What is your plan to conclude the interim phase of the ALAC in a
> reasonable time (ie get the RALOs established or any alternative plan)?
>
> As I said, deploying RALOs is a priority, as well as sort out what to do
> in
> those regions where the thing is not working. It seems that we are pretty
> close with Eurpe and Asia Pacific. Africa has a good number of
> organizarions
> accredited, and Latin America is not moving as fast as we would like, even
> though some of the most active organzations in ALAC are coming from this
> region (namely alfa redi). I am sure that the meeting in Lat Am this year
> could set a hallmark in the RALO formation from LAC , although I am
> consious
> that a lot of work is needed in the caribbean. Luckly, we have a caribbean
> member in the cmt now.
>
> Regarding Erik questions :
>
> 7) What kind of mechanisms for multilingual and multicultural work do you
> plan to implement?
>
> I think the committee would benefit form having discussion lists in
> different languages, coordinated by rapporteurs that can moderate the list
> and provide a summary of the different views to the committee. I am sure
> that a list in spanish is needed and we could set it up onto the new
> website. And this is not a new idea. A lot of people coming from ALSs
> find,
> in the language, the most important barrier of participation. I would bet
> the situaton is pretty much the same in africa and in AP. We need to
> tackle
> this issue.
>
> 8) How would you develop consensus mechanisms among ALAC members?
>
> As I said before, I beleive that one of the Chairs preeminent roles is to
> get positions closer in the quest for consensus, promoting insightful
> debates, and being sure that every party take in account the merits of a
> different position.
>
> 9) What are your expectations from Vice Chairs?
>
> Vice chairs need to be more active, and for that, a clear role and
> responsabilities is needed. So far, we elect Vice Chairs, but without
> giving
> them a clear assignment. I think we could use better the potemtial of the
> members of the cmt that are willing to serve in this position.  Having
> vice
> chairs for outreach and policy will help the committee to accomplish its
> challenging objectives faster. They can also be helpful to assist the
> chair
> in a number of organization related issues.
>
> I think those were the questions proposed. I´m happy to answer any other
> question you might have. I also have a remaining comment, that I think is
> fair to send you at this time:
>
> There has been a lot of e mail interchanges among us in the last weeks
> regarding the need of a common discourse. Well, I am one of those who
> think
> we need one. In fact, rather than a common discourse, I would say we need
> a
> common vision, a common goal. Call it a "collective aspiration". I don´t
> think that the end user would benefit from a huge academic discussion, but
> from a practical point of view and way of work. We need to be as
> professional as the biz or registrar constituencies, even without being
> professional lobbists. A common goal is a must in every endevour pursued
> by
> a group of people. And this is why I thought that to have an ALAC retrat
> of
> haven in Wellington was a good idea: we deserve to ourselves a discussion
> about how to get where. We won´t be going anywere on our own personal
> capacities. On the other hand, a lot may be accomplished by working as a
> real team.
>
> Finally, a couple of words about WSIS and post WSIS ICANN. As some of you
> might know, I wasn´t very happy with the WSIS process. I still remember
> Izumi´s surprise when we met in Geneva for PrepCom3, where I was
> participating with the Internet Society. I thought that WSIS was a threat
> to
> the net. I thought that governments intervention had the power to break
> the
> network. And therefore, I didn´t want to participate in such a thing.
> However, over the time I´ve realized that those arguments are precisely
> the
> reasons why I needed to participate. To assure that government
> intervention
> is made in an informed and constructive way. So I decided to participate
> in
> the last phase of the process. After those meetings in Geneva and Tunis,
> it
> became very clear to me that ICANN will change. The GAC will have a
> different role, and governments participation is going to be very
> different
> from what we knew. In this change, we need to be sure that the ALAC has a
> strong role. I think we need to discuss that role. It is very easy to say
> that we need voting power on the board, but the whole thing is broader
> than
> that. Let´s focus on the whole package. How we make this happen? While
> trying to answer this questions, I am sure that you will came back again
> to
> those issues in the first questions: How we assure broad participation?
> How
> could we develop consensus mechanisms, etc...
>
> I think this is long enough for now.
>
> Best,
>
> Sebastian
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 268.2.1/279 - Release Date: 10/03/2006
>
>
>


--
Jacqueline Morris
www.carnivalondenet.com
T&T Music and videos online