[ALAC] ALAC/At-Large Mailing Lists

[Alan Greenberg]

My thoughts below.  Alan

At 24/10/2012 12:21 PM, Dev Anand Teelucksingh wrote:
>Hi, Alan
>
>the ALS Starter Kit is a document which has relevant material on the
>public facing ALAC/At-Large mailing lists
>https://community.icann.org/display/atlarge/ALS+Starter+Kits (meaning
>the ALAC_internal and ALAC Excom lists are not mentioned)
>
>Re: the At-Large and ALAC_announce lists, I think both lists need to
>be kept as these lists serve different purposes.
>
>* The ALAC_announce list - all ALS representatives are added to this
>list by At-Large Staff when their ALS is formally accredited by ALAC
>and is the primary channel by which ALSes are informed on
>ALAC/At-Large activity by At-Large Staff and the ALAC chair.

Can individuals subscribe as well?


>* The At-Large list - Anyone on the list can post on any topic
>(typically ICANN policy issues) for others to comment on. I believe
>that  ALS representatives and ALAC members are NOT added automatically
>but can "manually' join if they know how to.
>
>Re: ALAC Excom....a bigger question is the necessity of the Excom list
>- shouldn't policy discussions on the Excom list be on the ALAC list?
>IF Excom calls are open to ALAC members, shouldn't the Excom call
>announcements also be on the ALAC list?

Announcing ExCom calls on the ALAC list is a good idea. Don't think 
in precludes a list for ExCom discussions.


>Re: creating shadow lists for the ALAC and ALAC Excom - I would
>investigate the ability to have RSS feeds for these (and for that
>matter all At-Large WG lists and GNSO WG lists) to make it easier for
>anyone to monitor activity.

Agree RSS should be an option. Not sure that it replaces the ability 
to receive via e-mail though.



>Kind Regards,
>
>Dev Anand Teelucksingh
>
>
>On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 11:37 PM, Alan Greenberg
><alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca> wrote:
> > While working on the Rules of Procedure, it became obvious that we
> > needed a document describing the various ALAC mailing lists giving a
> > summary of their usage and describing who must of should be
> > subscribed. This list will not include RALO lists or the multitude of
> > working group and committee lists
> >
> > Currently there are five such lists. All are archived and are
> > publicly viewable except as noted.
> >
> > ALAC - General ALAC list used for the majority of ALAC e-mail
> > interactions. Originally only ALAC members, RALO leadership, formal
> > Liaisons selected by the ALAC, Liaisons to the ALAC, At-Large Board
> > member and Staff were on it. More recently, it has included (either
> > by accident or intentionally), selected former ALAC member, selected
> > former RALO leadership, and others. (I am using the term "formal
> > Liaisons" to refer to the ccNSO, GNSO and SSAC Liaisons - those to
> > other ICANN or external bodies.)
> >
> > ALAC-Internal - Used for things that we do not want to be publicly
> > viewable. Most commonly, this is travel arrangements, social plans
> > and occasionally semi-confidential issues or issues where we want
> > targeted ALAC feedback. Membership is similar to the ALAC list, 
> but no "others"
> >
> > ALAC-ExCom - Publicly viewable list for the ALAC ExCom. Membership is
> > traditionally ExCom members, formal Liaisons appointed by the ALAC,
> > and Staff. More recently a few others were added.
> >
> > ALAC-Announce - General list for announcements. Only ICANN staff and
> > the ALAC Chair (I think) have sending privileges. This list includes
> > pretty much everyone in the ALAC list plus about 175 others.
> >
> > At-Large - General public list. This list has Most but not all of
> > those onthe ALAC list (missing about 10 ALAC members and RALO
> > leadership) plus about 160 others.
> >
> > ALAC-Announce and At-Large membership overlaps. There are 98 people
> > on both lists (about 1/3 of which are ALAC/RALO Leadership), 126 just
> > ALAC-Announce and 98 just At-Large
> >
> > For mail sent to lists from senders not on the lists, there are four
> > possible outcomes, it goes through, it is held for moderation, it
> > bounces or it is discarded without a reject message (moderation
> > requires staff action). Based on a test, I believe that for the ALAC
> > list, such messages are discarded, for the ALAC-Internal list, such
> > mail bounces, and for the ExCom it is moderated. Not sure about the
> > two larger lists.
> >
> > My suggestions for going forward are:
> >
> > ALAC
> > - Membership for ALAC, RALO Leadership, formal Liaisons appointed by
> > the ALAC, Board member and Staff
> > - Membership for Liaisons appointed TO the ALAC
> > - Perhaps membership to WG Chairs if not already included above
> > - Membership for past holders of above categories (my preference, or
> > could be receive only - see below)
> >
> > ALAC-Internal
> > - Membership for ALAC, RALO Leadership, formal Liaisons appointed by
> > the ALAC, Board member and Staff
> >
> > ALAC-ExCom (with a new name mapping to the ALAC Leadership Team name
> > used in the new RoP)
> > - Members of the ExCom, formal Liaisons appointed by the ALAC, Board
> > member and Staff
> >
> > I think we need to discuss the ALAC-Announce and At-Large lists
> > further. I am not at all sure we need two lists for this.
> >
> > I suggest we create two additional lists that "shadow" the ALAC and
> > ExCom lists. That is, subscription open to all and they receive all
> > messages that got to the ALAC and ExCom lists. This allows those who
> > want to follow the discussions to receive them without the
> > inconvenience of having to go to the archive. This is equivalent to
> > adding the to the lists in receive-only mode, but since we have had
> > regular problems ensuring that the membership of the ALAC and ExCom
> > lists is correct, having a shadow list would be a lot cleaner.
> >
> > Please let me know what you think about these issues.
> >
> > Alan
> >
> >
> >
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