[LAC-Discuss] Problems with Country Listing on the PRO Working Group online questionnaire

Deirdre Williams deirdrewilliams2000 at yahoo.co.uk
Fri May 11 14:45:26 EDT 2007


Dear Nick,

--- Nick Ashton-Hart <nick.ashton-hart at icann.org>
wrote:

 
> We have been forwarded your comments on the issues
> you, and others in  
> the Caribbean region, have had in responding to the
> questionnaire on  
> the Protection of the Rights of Others and I wanted
> to respond  
> personally to ensure you understood the situation
> and the steps we  
> have taken after being notified of the issues you
> have raised.
> 
> Firstly, it may be of interest for you to know that
> this was the  
> first wide-scale use of online polling technology
> with this provider;  

Liz Williams said the same thing but, in for a penny
in for a pound, this should have indicated the need
for more rigorous checking.

> we are still learning how to use it and
> unfortunately, the list of  
> countries which was chosen for respondents to use
> was not a complete,  
> ISO-compliant list. This was not due to any software
> fault; there is  
> more than one pre-provided list of countries to
> choose from and the  
> one chosen was unfortunately the abbreviated
> version.

That was one of my problems. The list was NOT just
"the abbreviated version". After I discovered that St
Lucia was not there, I was amazed to see that Northern
Ireland was. On Tuesday, "Devolution Day" in Northern
Ireland, I referred to this in my message to CIVIC:
"It would be interesting to discover how the list was
created. Northern Ireland appears on it, which makes
ICANN clairvoyant or a very strong supporter of
devolution :-)"
 
> Secondly, while it was possible to reply via filling
> in a Word  
> document-version of the poll, that option was not
> made available  
> until after one had chosen a country from the list,
> so unfortunately,  
> those who didn't find their country listed may well
> have given up in  
> frustration and never seen the option.

This is very tactfully and diplomatically stated. I
particularly admire the uncertainty communicated by
the use of the word "may" :-) In fact without a
country the option was invisible.

Joking apart I would be very interested to see a copy
of the survey questions. I went back this morning and
pretended to be in - Northern Ireland - where in fact
I grew up, but although I filled everything in the
final step - the email
password/acknowledgement/whatever - is obviously no
longer live.
> 
> We are very sorry that this combination of factors
> made the poll much  
> less useful in certain respects than it could have
> been.
> 
> However, in the wider context, it may be useful to
> know that this  
> good faith effort by the working group to ensure
> that anyone in the  
> ICANN community could respond to the issues being
> considered by the  
> working group was a groundbreaking one - I believe
> this is the first  
> time that a polling system has been used to capture
> the views of the  
> community in a programmatic fashion which the
> software platform makes  
> possible. What you have experienced is clearly not
> what was intended  
> but we will learn from these problems and ensure
> that they don't recur.
> 
> I do hope that you and your colleagues in the
> Caribbean region will  
> make your feelings known on future polls - and we
> will ensure that  
> there is always a link on the polls to report a
> problem such as  
> you've discovered so that these can be fixed before
> the poll response  
> 'window' closes. We believe that wide-scale,
> open-to-the-public  
> polling using electronic tools will allow everyone
> in the community  
> the ability to provide all of us in the greater
> ICANN 'fold' much  
> more information on what people really think is
> important, and why.  
> We hope that you will balance this against the
> unfortunate experience  
> you have had.

Of course :-) My particular interest is in building
community of purpose, an "usness of them", across
language and culture. I wish you many more successful
surveys - with comprehensive lists :-)
> 
> I hope that you or Jacqueline will be so kind as to
> forward this  
> response to the Caribbean CIVIC mailing list so that
> your colleagues  
> may know we are sorry for what has happened.  Do
> feel free to reply,  
> or have any colleagues reply, with any other
> concerns or queries you  
> may have.

Your message was published on CIVIC this morning.
Best wishes from St Lucia
Deirdre



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