[At-Large] [NA-Discuss] Letter to the Board

[Evan Leibovitch]

Robert Guerra wrote:
> Let me make it cleat that iaftereveral months of calls, conference
> calls, and or planning I was - well quite disappointed by the lack of
> attendance of the local cao bloggers. Yes a video w made, bit it is
> not the interacte learning experience that I had hoped their presence
> throuhout the meeting would have achieved.
>   

That's being kind. By the end of the week I was feeling as if we were
exploited by those merely looking to use us as a soapbox for grievances
that were incapable of being addressed by ICANN.

I was disgusted by the fact that NOT one of the "local community"
bothered to attend the actual conference. Perhaps they would have
understood, having done so, that ICANN is not IGF. There was little we
could have done for their cause short of embarassing the hosts, and the
benefits of that would have been far outweighed by the negatives.

> There are grave issues facing internet users in egypt and it would have been ideal to hear it first hand from a variety of them during
> the meeting. Thing could have been done better - for sure. Things also could have worked out far better if one or more persons would have
> been keen eniugh to follow up to and respond to my messages over the last few months on enhancing local user participation at physical meetings.
>   

Robert, you were the one who claimed to have contacts in the local
community. While I am completely sympathetic in the message conveyed by
those we met, I suspect that most local Internet users were left
unawares. How widely spread were your contacts; were they limited to the
free-speech advocates to the exclusion of others? Do Egyptian Internet
users not have the same concerns about phishing, name abuse and IDNs
(etc) as others? Where were they? I have no idea whether those you
attracted to the event represent a mainstream view or just a very small
but active minority.

IMO this is a challenge for At-Large and a test of ICANN's commitment to
it. Starving At-Large for outreach resources -- even because of the
Summit -- prevents At-Large from doing its critical job of finding the
point of view of non-activists. Every ICANN conference at which we do
not attract a few potential local ALSs represents a missed opportunity.

- Evan