[ALAC] The Role of the At-Large Community - Discussion with the Board

[Alberto Soto]

I agree with Alan. I would just add that those 10 chosen, and the rest of
the non-elected members, through their ALS are the FINAL USER-RALOS-ALAC
ICANN interface. And through them feedback is done with the end users. From
there it is clear that we interpret and defend the interests of the end
users.

Regards

Alberto

-----Mensaje original-----
De: alac-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org
[mailto:alac-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org] En nombre de Alan Greenberg
Enviado el: Friday, March 3, 2017 1:34 AM
Para: ALAC <alac at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
Asunto: [ALAC] The Role of the At-Large Community - Discussion with the
Board

One of the topics suggested (by Rinalia) for discussion with the Board in
CPH is the challenges of engaging with end-users.

I would like to start the discussion by presenting the results of Table 3 in
the At-Large Review report describing a survey question on the role of the
A-L Community.

The question read: In your opinion which of the following statements most
accurately describes the role played by the At-Large Community within ICANN?

There were five answers shown here with the % of Board/SO/AC respondents for
each option.

1. The At-Large Community is made up of ALSes and individual RALO members
that mainly act in their own interests. (58%)
	
2. The At-Large Community is made up of At-Large Structures (ALSes) and
individual RALO members that engage in ICANN policy development processes on
behalf of Internet end users worldwide. (13%)
	
3. At-Large is the body within ICANN that allows all Internet end-users to
engage in ICANN policy development processes in an equal and
non-discriminatory fashion. (6%)
	
4. The At-Large Community is made up of At-Large Structures (ALSes) and
individual RALO members that effectively engage with the global community of
Internet end-users in a bottom-up, consensus- driven fashion. (13%)
	
5. The elected members of the ALAC have a mandate to speak in the interests
and on behalf of end users in ICANN policy development processes. (10%)

My analysis:

1. is largely correct. ALSes are independent entities that generally exist
outside of the ICANN context. They of course act in their own interests
(which may well coincide with the interests of other including the interests
of 3.5 billion users. However, by consolidating these regionally diverse
inputs, the RALOs and the ALAC can reasonably claim to represent the needs
and interests of users world-wide.

2. is also correct. We certainly do need to get MORE people involved, but if
the component parts listed in 2 are not us, who are we?

3. is impossible. How can ANYTHING claim to engage all 3.5 billion users, or
even provide the mechanisms to allow such participation? Do 6% of
respondents really think we do??

4. is either impossible if it implies that ALSes and individual members
engage with the ENTIRE global community, or is a reasonable target if we
mean that each part engages in some subset of their local community, or is
based on experience with such a community.

5. is false. No one of the 10 RALO-selected (presumably that is what they
meant by "elected") Member has a mandate to speak on behalf of all users or
the users of their region. But together, along with the NomCom-appointed
Members have a mandate to formulate statements which they believe will serve
the global user community well.

What do people think of this analysis?

Alan



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