[ALAC] [At-Large] [Registrants-rights] That Revised PICDRP

Sun Oct 6 04:36:53 UTC 2013

Hello Fouad,

you make a good case for having and implementing a communication policy in ALAC. I agree. How can we go about this?

The dilemma, and sometimes the challenge for ALAC, is that it was created to keep the kids warm and happy. They were invited to comment on ongoing discussions happening elsewhere. Failing that first step, there was no prospect of ALAC ever becoming a serious interlocutor. Thanks to the progress achieved over the past few years (kudos to the successive Chairs and members), ALAC has earned the respect of the community, and on occasion is even heeded by the Board.

As we know, the turning point came at the end of the Review of ALAC by the Board, with the recommendation that one Board seat, with voting rights, be offered to our community. This status has provided visibility and respectability. But the work is still, to a large extent, about reacting to discussions going on elsewhere.

Without a fundamental -and at this stage, unlikely- reform of ICANN, ALAC's role will remain advisory. But even with that statutory limitation, it is within our own power, and ability, to shift part of our effort from reacting to initiating, from sharing someone else's agenda to defending the global public interest on our own, or with a set of issues-based alliances.

This is where a communication policy becomes necessary. Fouad, you suggest a WG: why not. Other approaches are possible:
a) ALAC's Executive Committe could be asked to include in its agenda, say 4 times a year, a serious discussion on communication policy and implementation;
b) alternatively, a person within the ExeCom, or simply a member of ALAC, could be asked to be the focal point for such a task;
c) or, as you suggest Fouad, a WG could be created to include people from a wider circle, capable of providing professional advice and carry out actual work in this respect;
d) and, or course, we could combine the above b + c.

>From experience, I'd say that in this instance the structure is not the crucial part. The policy is. And the implementation.

I'm willing to help.

Jean-Jacques.

----- Mail original -----
De: "Fouad Bajwa" <fouadbajwa at gmail.com>
À: "Carlton Samuels" <carlton.samuels at gmail.com>
Cc: "Jean-Jacques Subrenat" <jjs at fastmail.fm>, "ALAC Working List" <alac at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
Envoyé: Dimanche 6 Octobre 2013 07:12:05
Objet: Re: [ALAC] [At-Large] [Registrants-rights] That Revised PICDRP

Just an observer comment, someone mentioned crowd source, that is actually your strategic advantage as Carlton has rightly put, crowd sourcing and going inward to outward is from various different angles. In the ICANN community world, CircleID, various domain news sites, even the bbc matter to create that noise that matters. 

One thing I've always felt over the years is ALAC could have had was a Policy Communication Dissemination WG that could focus on creating inward outward and outward inward crowd-sourced campaigns to let the ICANN community and rest of the possibly interested news and media world know that what the users voice and soul thinks. This is ALACs version of a user intellect and intelligence team, with non-alac but ralo members, not,concerned with managing RALOs and alac but rather making it more strategic.

Such would only make ALAC's presence and existence more strong beyond its present remit. In the 'other' real world public policy world, we have extensive strategizing and dissemination of something called communicating policy and we go about using it to counter lobby groups, policy forums, creating diplomatic noise before all the G 8s,77s etc happen, creating public opinion. It helps us take our public policy issues beyond personal interest issues turning them into everyone's problem. I thought we could learn from GAC and the corporate lobbyists, they both come out of the traditional public policy space but are redefined in their roles in society and economy to have different titles and roles in the governance universe, and are sometimes strategic in new ways.

The closest advice I have ever read is sometimes in Rinalia's comments, she has policy experience beyond the remit of ICANN from the 'real policy world interactions' and maybe she might help ALAC understand what I am trying to get at here. 

Communicating policy is both about being experienced and strategic and knowing how to communication with the public beyond using traditional mediums. If the challenge is that one exists in the closed universe of various policy and governance activities but is unable to successfully communicate all the work and concerns creates a thought provoking problem, there are other challenges to this environment but what if there was a lobbyist style policy communication group in ALAC, then, I'd be really scared of you in other parts of ICANN because the more noisy you are, the more my ICANN is in trouble. Strengthening institutes isn't a bad idea even if it happens in ALAC alone.

By the way, this is a non-geek way of communication that I refer to. Countries use it to convince their citizens that their good ol tax money is being used to kick the right bums, do we think those citizens are down right dumb, no, it's that group of intelligentsia that coaxes them to believe so and does it with a lot of noise, I hope you understand my undertones, think and act in a more strategic manner will help reduce your frustrations.

Best Regards
Fouad Bajwa

Sent from my mobile device

On Oct 6, 2013, at 3:30 AM, Carlton Samuels <carlton.samuels at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Oct 5, 2013 at 12:34 AM, Jean-Jacques Subrenat <jjs at fastmail.fm>wrote:
> 
>> In the case under consideration, we may wish to consider combining several
>> approaches:
>> - seek to create an issue-based (and therefore temporary) alliance with
>> any segment of ICANN willing to defend the same idea (in this case, GAC +
>> non-commercial + ccNSO?);
>> - a letter to the Board Chair, not just setting out the problem, but
>> suggesting corrective measures. Ideally, such a letter would be signed by
>> the Chairs of the temporary alliance.
>> - Going public in ICANN (Public Forum, roundtable if available) and
>> outside (CircleID and other sites).
>> 
> 
> Here's some sage advice.  We ramp up and attack from many angles.
> 
> +1
> 
> -Carlton
> 
> 
> 
> ==============================
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