Comments on the proposed criteria and accreditiation process for At Large structures

["Jeanette Hofmann" <jeanette@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Some late comments regarding the "Proposed Criteria and Accreditation Process for At-Large Structures"

1. I find it quite disturbing that individual users have to found or join an organization in order to be accepted as members of the At large body. ICANN attracts such a small number of people worldwide, why make it more difficult for them to participate?

There are hardly any organisations, which "involve individual Internet users in at least one issue or activity that relates to ICANN's technical management responsibilities for the Internet's domain name and address system" and thereby fufil your first criteria.

I don't see what "supporting and promoting the use of the Internet among individual users" has to do with ICANN's technical management responsibilities. The vagueness of this criteria sounds like an invitation for future trouble to me.

2. I have also doubts regarding the regional division of the At Large body. The 5 regions model doesn't reflect language communities, neither does it correspond to any real life experience of most individual users. Personally, I find it rather unimportant in what region people are located. What counts for me is participation in an informed,  possibly non-antagonistic discussion on DNS and ICANN related related issues. Does it really make sense to divide the small At Large community surrounding ICANN at present even further into regions and structures? I would feel more comfortable with a structure that grows and diferenciates according to the size of its membership. The proposed model runs the risk to create an empty shell.

Jeanette Hofmann