Re: [At-Large] Individual users and ALAC

["Jeffrey A. Williams" <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Evan, Jeanette and all,

  Jeanette, I an our members largely share you concerns.
And of late the NARALO, EURALO, and this global ALAC list
have seemingly sought to thwart public participation which
is one of several reasons the silent majority to which 
Evan speaks to, fears to participate actively.  I myself
have been "Moderated" largely due to a decided lack of 
interest by others whom control these ALSes public input
mechanisms, yet as spokesman for a fair number of users
all of whom are also registrants, but yet share significantly
the concerns of interests in issues that effect them directly 
or indirectly.  Such is an example of perhaps why individual
users are so reluctant, be they silent not due to choice, but
due to fear of repudiation, ridicule, or other much more
hazardous reprocutions that may be personally damaging
and long lasting.

  As such, other non-ICANN NNW's have formed starting in 
2001, such as http://itp.nyu.edu/blogs/ecm292/2008/02/26/nnwkaa-30/
that are decidedly taking things into their own hands with the
supprot of other government agencies such as DHS so that
some of these concerns can be heard, addressed, and hopefully
resolutions effected rather than endlessly discussed amongst
a "Chosen" few, decided by that same "Chosen few", and rarely
a effective resolution effected, such as Whois privacy, access,
and accuracy, phishing, spam, and proliferation of child
poronography.  Many of these problems have their roots in
DNS itself, others are more complicated and complex in nature
but almost always revolve around security aspects, or lack there
of, imposed or not yet effected by both government and private 
sector actors, yet with known methods or correction, by such
as Google, Wikipedia, registries and registrats, ISP's, IAP's,
and other Internet service providers/ecommerce companies of various 
sorts.

  Some good examples of the danger that some of these "Chosen
few" have already exposed you to are evident in their DNS
configurations such as ICANN.ORG, telly.org, which is Evans
domain, IETF.ORG, franceatlarge.org, and recently,
alvestrand.no whom is taking submittions for their online
forum WG if IDN's.
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=telly.org&token=2510766954ed5df806816d8d18a09019

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=ietf.org&token=06706b9b19525d380a5178873ac1a019

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=franceatlarge.org&token=07906237254656aa0031218c0e4b9019

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=alvestrand.no&token=07e0322f10885d2106d1678517d71019

  And these are just a few or the tip or the huge iceburg,
so to speak...


-----Original Message-----
>From: Evan Leibovitch <evan@xxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Apr 17, 2008 11:35 AM
>To: Jeanette Hofmann <jeanette@xxxxxx>
>Cc: alac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [At-Large] Individual users and ALAC
>
>Hello, Jeanette.
>> What still amazes me though is that the At Large Membership doesn't
>> provide "a home" for individual Internet users. No doubt, they are
>> affected by ICANN's policies but they have no direct means to
>> articulate their interests and concerns, unless they join an ALS, of
>> course. Now doubt also, individual users form a large group out there
>> on the net.  Do you all regard this as a blind spot of ICANN
>> structures and processes? Do you think things will stay like this or
>> do you expect them to change some time in the future?
>Speaking personally and not in my capacity as NARALO Chair:
>
>I agree fully and passionately with the ICANN _intent_ behind At-Large,
>which is to try to extract the view of the general public on its issues.
>So far it has heard from vested interests (the business, IP, registry
>and registrar communities) as well as those who are paid full time to
>think about policy (GAC, NCUC). At-Large is none of that; while I
>believe that the "public interest" is the single most important
>constituency within ICANN, determining what is the public interest is a
>HUGE challenge that At-Large has tried to do. Small steps have been
>taken but far more lies ahead.
>
>So far, all the individuals who I have seen become involved in At-Large
>are dedicated to knowing the issues, good at analysis, passionate about
>policy, and vocal with their opinions.
>
>In other words, they have nothing in common with the general public At
>Large.
>
>You only see them as a "large group" because they are the ones already
>in front of you, shouting. The silent disinterested ones, the challenges
>that we must reach, outnumber the current loud independents by hundreds
>of thousands to one.
>
>The "independent users" are critical in policy building and
>opinion-shaping, but they do not themselves resemble the great
>disinterested masses that ICANN is trying to reach. These people
>_should_ be in leadership or advocacy efforts within larger groups in
>order to help achieve ICANN's mandate and affect / survey  the greatest
>number of public opinions. Having them sit as independents is IMO a
>substantial waste of their talent. For this reason, I appreciate
>measures that discourage independent participation and encourage
>individuals to join (or create!) ALSs that can share their skill and
>passion with a wider audience. (NOTE: I said discourage, not disallow).
>
>There are certainly many existing organizations that SHOULD be ALSs but
>have neither the awareness or passion to be involved. The right person
>within those orgs could easily change that situation and our individual
>members are perfect candidates. Economies of scale -- in terms of
>volunteer person-hours even more than money -- suggest that we need more
>ALSs reaching the disinterested far more than we need to  encourage the
>growth of "audiences of one".
>
>I can say more, but I need to go out. I hope you're not sorry that you
>asked. ;-)
>
>- Evan
>
>_______________________________________________
>ALAC mailing list
>ALAC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org
>
>At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org

Regards,

Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 281k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" -
   Abraham Lincoln

"Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is
very often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B;
liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
===============================================================
Updated 1/26/04
CSO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security IDNS.
div. of Information Network Eng.  INEG. INC.
ABA member in good standing member ID 01257402 E-Mail
jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
My Phone: 214-244-4827