[alac] ALAC structure and strategy

[Annette Muehlberg <Annette.Muehlberg@xxxxxx>]

Dear all,
I think we had a productive meeting in Luxemburg and I would like to follow up 
on it with several issues.

1. The board discussed the question of possible conflicts of interests. I think 
we as ALAC members should give a good example and make a conflict of interest 
disclosure.

2. There is a basic rule: never take money from someone who might depend on 
your decisions. I know, that ICANN as an organisation works different, but at 
least ALAC should do so.
ALAC should not take any money from people who might depend on our decision. It 
is the responsibility of ICANN to act in the interest of endusers, so ICANN has 
to pay for the ALAC activities ? regardless if the strategic output might get 
in conflict with the opinion of members of the board.

3. Talking about money: It is surprising to me, that neither the ALAC team 
itself nor the connected staff member has clear information on what the budget 
is. The budget should be run/organized by ALAC and not by the staff. The ALAC 
has to make a plan on what activities it is planning to achieve. Sometimes it 
helps to travel less and instead produce more information material and organize 
events.
ALAC needs: 
- a strategic plan (consisting of two parts: goal and action, that is, 
describing the overall goal of serving endusers interests and the concrete 
activities for 1 year)
- financial plan
- budget transparency 

4. How to develop a strategic plan for ALAC?
The existing strategic plan of ICANN is only of limited help for that.
And I did not see a paper by the GAC on a public policy strategy, but I will 
ask them to be sure about that.

If we see the internet as public good to serve the endusers interests, we 
should develop a list of criteria which has to be fulfilled. Then we can test 
all the (business) proposals against these values (like: accessability, costs, 
chance to identify oneself with a new TLD, easy use etc.). The values defined 
should fit in a concept of connecting the world and sharing knowledge.

5. Outreach: Information and Fun ? a toolkit for non-ICANNics
To develop a >toolkit< ALAC could link up with other groups in the area of open 
source, creative commons, wikipedia translations.

And it would help to get more regular information by our board liason on what 
is on stake ? just little news every two weeks or so.

This for a start, I am still working on answering the gTLD questions...

Longing for your feedback

Regards

Annette
_________________________________________________________________________
Mit der Gruppen-SMS von WEB.DE FreeMail können Sie eine SMS an alle 
Freunde gleichzeitig schicken: http://freemail.web.de/features/?mc=021179