[NA-Discuss] ALAC Review Draft is published

[Evan Leibovitch]

Alan Greenberg wrote:
> I find this a rather curious comment. Many (perhaps most) of the  NomCom appointees to the ALAC and GNSO that I am familiar with have 
> little or no background with ICANN before their appointment. It is certainly the situation in my case.
>   
The criteria -- formal or informal -- used to seek and choose candidates
helps enforce a certain kind of philosophical orthodoxy. ICANN
experience is not necessarily a component of that.

When was the last time that the NomComm appointed someone for ALAC who
had _zero_ experience in Internet governance? This characteristic is
shared by the overwhelming majority of the public-at-large which ALAC is
supposed to represent. It fits me and quite a few other people here. If
ICANN wants to educate and hear from the otherwise-disinterested public,
then it /must/ be aware of the perspective of such "IG virgins". And yet
a lack of such experience would almost certainly be a cause for
disqualification for NomComm consideration.

> Also, ALAC currently names almost 1/3 of the NomCom. If these people are helping to appoint such poor contributors to the At-Large cause, then we are either naming people who don't espouse our views, or who are particularly poor in persuading their colleagues regarding what is needed.
>   
I'm having difficulty constructing the point of what that sentence is
trying to say, especially who is referred to as "we".

If the point is that the elected ALAC reps are failing to convince the
appointed ones of their POV, my response would be -- so what? Why should
the representatives of the grassroots have to convince non-grassroots
ALAC members of validity of their cause? How many other interest groups
have such "devils advocates" inflicted upon them by ICANN? Such defence
of ALAC's views will have to happen anyway once they confront those of
ICANN's other constituencies, at the level of the NSOs and the Board.
But under the current regime, our positions -- as in, the actual
initiatives and views of the grassroots -- are compromised and watered
down before they even leave ALAC.

I prefer to deal with the general question differently. Rather than
engage on the merits of appointees, I want to be told what ICANN has
against giving full trust within ALAC to democratic vote and accountable
delegates. If there are groups that are under-represented, well then
that's what outreach is for. We address that problem by empowering the
public, not by pretending their interests are represented by
unaccountable appointees.

- Evan