[ALAC] ALAC Newsletter? (was Re: FW: Fwd: Cherine Chalaby to Alan Greenberg ...)

[Evan Leibovitch]

[ Note: I seem to be blocked from the ALAC list but am receiving this
thread through personal CCs. Thank you for that.]


The beginning of this thread talked about the Board asking for executive
summaries of its commentaries. Somehow this has morphed into doing an ALAC
newsletter along the lines of what is now done by NARALO and ICANN's Latin
American community.

I suggest caution.

First, be sure there is an audience. It should be possible to collect
statistics to see how many hits have been on the NARALO and other existing
newsletters. We're already doing such policy debriefs in webinar form (such
as this week's Ottawa readout -- how well was that attended by the intended
audience?) What's the point of spending all this volunteer effort to write
something that nobody will read (and arguably is already being done)?

Second, what is the newsletter's purpose?

   - To introduce ALAC to an outside audience?

   - To create in-depth summaries of issues to enable ALSs and individual
   participants to give informed policy feedback to ALAC?

   - To provide a summary of ALAC positions taken (which is what the Board
   has asked for)?

Each of these choices requires very different choices of content and maybe
even different writers. It also requires someone to be already deeply
involved within ALAC policy to be able to describe the "what is ALAC
thinking right now" subject matter that Maureen suggested. Is there a good
supply of such specialized writers eager to help?

Lastly, ICANN At-Large is full of really good ideas that simply die when
their champions leave, or when advocates for such good ideas presume that
"someone else" will do it, and in a volunteer body such assumptions can be
dangerous. This is especially so if there is a commitment to a schedule of
future activity.

While ICANN is going into austerity mode when it comes to finances,
At-Large seems to be in the midst of a lengthy austerity mode regarding
volunteer talent. The number of person-hours available for ALAC projects,
especially those that require good awareness of ICANN's issues and ALAC's
stances on them, is very small. Is it reasonable to channel such resources
into a newsletter that nobody outside ALAC has asked for, rather than into
the original research and analysis that ALAC so badly needs?

- Evan
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