RE: [alac] President's Committee on Strategy, and ICANN legitimacy
Hi -- I have to say that though I am respectful of their opinions, I am also surprised to hear that some are dismayed that "only" one of our two proffered names was appointed to the committee. We were asked for a name, we sent a choice of names, one was picked up within days. Our representative gets direct access to the CEO; personally, I'm happy and know that Pierre will represent end users well. What role the Committee itself will play is not completely clear to me; it remains to be seen. I imagine Paul just sometimes wants--and needs-- to hear a few voices rather than the cacophony of many. I don't have a problem with that. The Committee was created by the ICANN Board-- it will be overseen by the Board. OK, maybe I'm too optimistic but it's early days and I'd like to wait and see. Responding to Roberto's other comments on ALAC process, many will agree that we could do better. As some have urged, we should post mostly everything to this public list. Others would then see that some of our discussions linger on forever and never seem to close. For example, it's true we've been trying off and on to get a consensus self-review document for over a year. Even now, Brandon at ICANNWiki is trying to help us move forward on that--can we recommit to trying one more time before the end of the month? On the other hand, let's not be too hard on ourselves. We have recently had some successes, including significant progress towards four RALOs (although at the same time we argue if the RALO idea is viable/too much structure/serves to keep end users at the edges instead of the middle, etc etc). We've also launched a new website (http://www.icannalac.org) with better public discussion opportunities as well as engagement tools for ALS's, RALO pioneers, ALAC members--and use is growing. We provide pointers and links to other info and blogs about ICANN and ALAC, too--even if they are critical of our work (although we argue about whether or not we should do that, too.) When I get frustrated with our progress and lack of it, I remember that we're all volunteers with other jobs. But I still wish we could at least agree to use a ticket-like tracking tool to make sure we're at least doing something to "move the ball forward" on things we're asked to do, policy advice we're asked to give, voting timetables we don't want to miss, etc. We can't even agree on developing that! Because I am mindful that others have accused ALAC of "too much navel-gazing and introspection," I will stop there. Roberto, you will be missed on ALAC but I do hope you might have put your name forward for one of the ICANN Board seats. We've never had an ALAC member go there. I know the nomination process is confidential, so I don't expect an answer, but I continue to hope for the best. :-) Jean Armour Polly
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