[NA-Discuss] Letter to the Board

[Robert Guerra]

Evan,

The issue of local user participation ended up being less then optimal
due to a couple of reasons. First, repeated requests for a room to
host users was blocked - ewith the excuse given that rooms were not
free. Of course that was not the case as the at large room was pretty
well free when we were nothere. Icann and some alac members expressed
the vire informally that a local user event was not in "in the remit
of at-large" any sensitive ssues might require that "a formal
appology" be given to thee egyptian govt offcials.

When aked directly if the video could be shown at the enf of at alac
meeting cheryl stated to me that it was possible, only if it was
screen by her. I was not awarethat the chair has ever had vetting
righs on content

Local users did want to come, but with no possible ok from the chair
or nick, an adhoc session had to be organized. With little adcance
notice - of course few people came. Whilei was very disappointed with
the turnout - it was good to see who did attend. It was mainly just
the north americans. The rest , well did not seem interested.

That alac and at large present did seem interested does not mean that
local users did not want to meet us. Comments and blog posting in key
MENA sites clearly show that the locals did want to meet us.

On the larger issue of engagement, namely virtual participation - I
was shocked by the lack of effort undertaken. No dial-in, no open
skype (voice) chat, no virtual questions. While in the past (san juan,
la, etc) dial-ups did take place - nothing was done in cairo. Voip, is
easy to do - and there is no excuse not to allow for virtual
participation. In an age where we are more connected then ever, to do
nothing - well, if not to care in the least. Indeed, a formal
complaint should b e lodged and actions taken to make sure virtual
participation - at alac meetings and other icann sessions is not just
considered, but actually done in a way that is effective and
participatory. Icann can do better on this, it must ..

As for the public forum - indeed it seems that the "public
participation director" seems to have had little effect in enhancing
public participation at meetings. Can one not learn from the US
election and use youtube to seek questions and comments and play them
back at thr meeting. Sigh.

In summary, I think there is a bottom up interest for participation
and dialogue - but these are resisted by management who prefer to
control the agenda and keep desenting views to a min. What can be done
- well, comment and participate using other channels . Perhaps
interested actors would be well advised to submit a letter not to the
board, but instead to the incoming adminstration .

Robert

On 11/12/08, Michele Neylon :: Blacknight <michele at blacknight.ie> wrote:
>
> On 7 Nov 2008, at 14:33, Danny Younger wrote:
>
>> I am of the view that the ALAC needs to write a very strong letter
>> to the Board expressing their disgust with (1) the manner in which
>> the ICANN Public Forum session was conducted that allowed for a very
>> limited amount of time within which to interact with the Board and
>> (2) the almost total lack of remote participation opportunities that
>> were available to at-large members.
>>
>> As someone that attempted to participate remotely, I can't point to
>> a single ALAC session that allowed for meaningful remote
>> participation, nor were audio feeds available for many workshops.
>>
>> This has to be the worst case of both in-person and remote
>> participation management that I have ever seen at an ICANN session.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>> At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
>
>
> Were there issues with the Cairo meeting? Normally I'd have expected
> to see at least one press release per day etc., etc., I was also
> interested in following some of the "action" but couldn't see how
>
> Michele
>
>
> Mr Michele Neylon
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