[NA-Discuss] Notes from a Retired ALAC Member

Sun Feb 4 14:00:11 EST 2007

Jean,

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. I think your notes provide us with real useful directions,

_________________________________________
Luc Faubert
Conseiller en gouvernance TI et en gestion du changement / 
IT governance and change management consulting
GFI Solutions
+1 514 236 5129
www.GFISolutions.com

www.LucFaubert.com
www.isoc.qc.ca
www.ccig.ca
www.maillons.qc.ca

> -----Original Message-----
> From: na-discuss-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org 
> [mailto:na-discuss-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf 
> Of Jean Armour Polly
> Sent: 3 février 2007 15:43
> To: na-discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org
> Subject: [NA-Discuss] Notes from a Retired ALAC Member
> 
> Hi-- I want to say a few things as the outgoing NA ALAC rep 
> from the Nomcom process. I served on ALAC for two years, with 
> my colleagues Wendy and John. It was great and I had a 
> wonderful time and learned a lot.
> 
> I came onto ALAC hoping to really try and add the end user's 
> voice to the mix. I found ALAC in disarray. I started the 
> icannalac website, I started a web-base voting tool, and 
> basically concentrated on shoring up the infrastructure. 
> Before my term ended in December 2006 I was even advocating a 
> NARALO face to face meeting in spring 2007. But my term ended 
> and I am not affiliated with any ALS. I entered as a real 
> optimist; I left still hopeful but, well, disillusioned.
> 
> You need to know that ICANN has a very narrow, rather geeky, mission. 
> http://www.icann.org/new.html It is very boring to most 
> people. Some people get involved with ICANN hoping it is 
> something else. If you're hoping to fight spam or something, 
> you're in the wrong place. Try IGF. http://www.intgovforum.org/
> 
> Things I learned:
> ICANN needs a "user's voice" to appear on its hierarchy 
> chart. This lets the U.S. Department of Commerce (with which 
> ICANN has a MoU - memorandum of Understanding--to actually 
> assign names and numbers, etc 
> http://icann.org/general/agreements.htm ) think that end 
> users actually have a say in what happens with those names 
> and numbers.
> 
> It's true ALAC can have its say, but the "catch" is that 
> ICANN doesn't have to listen, nor does it ever have to ask 
> the users for advice. (Remember the name is the At Large 
> ADVISORY Committee, so theoretically we're special). Sure 
> they routinely ask for comments on
> things-- but not directly to ALAC--they issue a general 
> request for comments from the entire Internet community. In 
> reality, I am not convinced that a communique from ALAC holds 
> any more weight than a comment from an interested individual. 
> The ICANN board seldom even acknowledged receipt of our 
> official memoranda on issues.
> 
> So-- the "advisory" part has been ignored by ICANN, for the 
> most part, in my opinion. Others may disagree.
> 
> So what's the most important thing ALAC does? Actually, there 
> are at least four things:
> 1. It appoints 5 members of the Nomcom. 
> http://nomcom.icann.org/ The Nomcom is the real 
> kingmaker--selecting  a portion of the ICANN board seatholders.
> In the 2 years I was on, we appointed all outside people as 
> our reps to the Nomcom. Only this year we discovered that 
> ALAC members could fill these roles. I think this would be an 
> excellent idea.
> 
> 2. The ICANN Board is where the power is. ALAC has one 
> non-voting seat on it, but it doesn't mean that the 
> representative can't participate in discussions. (I believe, 
> though, that the non-voting seatholders cannot serve on any 
> committees.). Many of us believe that ALAC should have AT 
> LEAST one voting seat on the ICANN board. Work for it.
> 
> 3. ALAC can call for an "Issues Report." ICANN staff must 
> then research a particular topic and write a report outlining 
> the various issues and stakeholders involved in the 
> particular issue. Issues Reports are important because they 
> can be the first step in the Policy Development Process (PDP). 
> http://www.icann.org/general/archive-bylaws/bylaws-08apr05.htm#AnnexA
> In Wellington (last March), ALAC asked for an issue report on 
> Domain Name Tasting (add-drop grace period). Well, OK, ALAC 
> couldn't decide if it wanted to start a PDP, so we asked for 
> a staff advisory or something more watered-down than that. 
> After months of delay we got a very short report that added 
> nothing to our knowledge of the topic. 
> ALAC staff at that time was an independent contractor with 
> ICANN. I believe ALAC is still hoping to ask for a real 
> issues report as a precursor to the PDP on the whole add-drop 
> grace period mess. I know it came up again on a recent list 
> posting and Bret replied he was working on something. The PDP 
> is also where power resides. Use it.
> 
> 4. Disseminate information on ICANN--   that means "warts and all." 
> There are a lot of good people working in ICANN roles, but 
> many times ...well, things just don't work right. Some say 
> "there is no 'ICANN'--ICANN is just people." Hold that 
> thought, but keep ICANN honest.
> 
> I have to express disappointment about working with ICANN 
> staff in the past. Although (congrats!) Nick is the new 
> Executive Director of At-Large, and hopefully things will now 
> be entirely different, he's still working under staff members 
> that have been there for a long time. In my tenure on ALAC, 
> there were many times some people (but not everyone) on ALAC 
> felt that staff was actually working against it, trying to 
> keep ALAC at the fringes and keep it from actually doing 
> anything important. The allocation of the At Large budget is 
> one way this happens. Make no mistake--At Large is more than 
> just ALAC and the money is spent many ways. Make sure you 
> understand how to make sure that the large budget allotted to 
> At Large actually flows to the betterment of end-users. Don't 
> do anything that is contrary to ALAC's mission. And 
> again--keep ICANN honest.
> 
> Hope this helps. It's not really clear what role RALOs will 
> play, except to appoint ALAC members from the regions. As far 
> as dissemination of info goes-- I think that's a requirement 
> to be an ALS, so putting a RALO info structure in-between 
> ALAC and the ALS's themselves doesn't seem to make much sense 
> to me. RALO to RALO interaction may be more important though. 
> I think it's important to get RALO reps to the ICANN meetings 
> (spend that At-Large budget!). 
> Again, be aware that what ICANN actually does and can do is 
> so very technical that most people are bored to death. It's 
> hard to get the end user interested--yet it is critically 
> important to them. So, find a way to do that.
> 
> best wishes, JP
> --
> Jean Armour Polly
> http://www.netmom.com/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> NA-Discuss mailing list
> NA-Discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org
> http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss_atl
arge-lists.icann.org
> 