[At-Large] Say Whut!

[Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond]

Dear Evan,

please be so kind to find my comments inline below:

On 10/12/2018 13:28, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> Hi Christian,
>
> Given my experiences and observations... While I have totally stayed
> away from the last At-Large review, I did one myself as a personal
> mental exercise. 
>
> The conclusion I came to is that the current structure underneath ALAC
> is overly politicized, appeals to superficial airs of importance, and
> is at its core designed to be utterly impotent in regard to serving
> its bylaw mandate.

You make several allegations. Please clarify:
- overtly politicized
- appears to superficial airs of importance
- designed to be utterly impotent in regard to service its bylaw mandate

I would disagree with the first two of your allegations and when it
comes to the third point, I would say that you are missing the actual
target: it is not the ALAC that is impotent in regard to service its
bylaw mandate, it is the ICANN structure that puts the ALAC in a weak
position as an advisory role that the ICANN Board can completely
disregard and with no power whatsoever over policy processes, except
taking part in discussions as individuals and coordinating the sending
out of comments.

>
> Were I to be engaged in a real exercise to enable ALAC to serve its
> bylaw mandate, I would wish to eliminate ALSs and move to fully
> individual membership in RALOs. I would reduce travel and invest more
> in vitual meeting technologies.

Have you read the At-Large review? I see from your point above that you
have not. I am sorry but you are just repeating the very words of the
At-Large review. And these were rejected by the community, an
alternative wording was proposed and this was accepted by the Board and
now going into implementation.
Second, I am utterly flabbergasted to read the point you make about
reducing travel and investing more into virtual meeting technologies.
You are the first person to know how terrible and expensive Internet
connectivity is in many developing countries and your point is basically
to promote the voice of developed countries at the expense of the rest
of the world.

> I would also concentrate ALAC activity in ONLY three areas:
>
> - Creation and distribution of plain language public education on the
> DNS and how it affects public use of the internet (written
> independently of ICANN itself) 
>
> - surveys and R&D into public needs and opinions about domain names
> and the DNS
>
> - analysis of the result of such research, and development of ICANN
> input based on that (both in original policy initiatives and response
> to existing activity)

Again, exact wordings given in the At-Large review, basically
transforming the ALAC into a free, volunteer marketing agency for ICANN.
Evan, have your expectations of the multistakeholder system in ICANN
fallen so low that you are giving up bringing the input of end users
into the ICANN processes? This is the primary role of At-Large!
A reminder of the ICANN bylaws:
(i) The At-Large Advisory Committee ("*At-Large Advisory Committee*" or
"*ALAC*") is the primary organizational home within ICANN for individual
Internet users. The role of the ALAC shall be to consider and provide
advice on the activities of ICANN, insofar as they relate to the
interests of individual Internet users. This includes policies created
through ICANN's Supporting Organizations, as well as the many other
issues for which community input and advice is appropriate. The ALAC,
which plays an important role in ICANN's accountability mechanisms, also
coordinates some of ICANN's outreach to individual Internet users.

Now if you are looking at having a group that is there to correct fake
news about ICANN, end users and the multistakeholder model, then why not
join the At-Large Social Media working group?
https://community.icann.org/display/atlarge/At-Large+Social+Media+Working+Group
I see you are listed, but have not confirmed your membership.

Kindest regards,

Olivier
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