[NA-Discuss] The self-nomination of Eric Brunner-Williams for NARALO Chair

Eric Brunner-Williams ebw at abenaki.wabanaki.net
Tue Jun 18 15:39:34 UTC 2013


> As head of a newer At-Large Structure ... I'm in favor of elections and a review of the operating priorities of
NARALO ...

Tom, Colleagues,

How each At-Large Structure -- with a functioning membership,
structure, which has (or will be in the case of recently certified
applicants) empowered informed individual contributions to policy
development, on the record at its URL of record -- arrives at its vote
of record is an internal matter.

With that observation made, and as Tom has been able to attend several
ICANN meetings (while wooed by vendors seeking .nyc), and hence may
appreciate the effect attendance has upon persons new to network
policy issues and ICANN policy issues and processes in particular,
allow me to suggest that if, in the course of a year, six individuals
active in ALSes which meet a reasonable interpretation of the 2007 MOU
receive travel support, this will make more accessible the informed
individual contribution to policy development in those ALSes, and
provide all ALSes -- again, which meet a reasonable interpretation of
the 2007 MOU -- motivation to be selected in each subsequent meeting
for which travel support is offered by the Corporation.

While I'm on the subject, the purpose is "informed individual
contributions to policy development", a purpose poorly meet by
spending the better part of the meeting week in "the ALAC silo" doing
meet-and-greets with others sent to or hiding in the ALAC silo.
Self-symmetric exercises in mutual admiration do not informed
individual contributions to policy make.

The two individuals selected by the RALO and accepted by the ALAC are
tasked to spend their meeting week working with their counter-parts
from the four other RALOs and those the NOMCOM has selected. Whether
they are effective in their tasks or not, they are not responsible for
enabling informed individual contributions to policy development, only
for the articulation of ALAC advice to the Board, and only on the
instruction of the RALO, which may be specific, or general.

Individuals who receive travel support other than the two ALAC-tasked
persons should get as broad and as deep an exposure to the GNSO and
its component organizations as they can -- with the registries, the
registrars, the trademark portfolio managers at the very least, and
their Council and its current policies and the processes by which it
arrives at changes of policy. They should do the same for the
Governments that form the GAC and arrive at an improved understanding
of the long-term interests of the two governments on the region which
have leading roles in the GAC, and the governments which are active in
the formation of each GAC Communique. Rinse and repeat for SSAC, and
an informed awareness of what the catch phrases "security and
stability" mean when uttered indifferent to some interested party, and
when uttered by a party with an interest in a policy or implementation
outcome.

I could go on, I've lost count of how many ICANN general and regional
and invitation-only gigs I've worked wearing the hats of registry,
registrar, and even RALO stand-by, but the point is travel support is
best spent informing, and necessarily from experience and knowledge
gained outside the ALAC silo, not reciting received wisdom from inside
those confines, as that is duplication without benefit the reports the
two ALAC tasked representatives of the RALO must provide.

The purpose captured in the 2007 MOU is furthering informed individual
contributions to policy development, not, to rephrase a frequent
saying of my friend Marshall Rose, the maintenance of a small club
given to frequent fine dining in exotic locations.

Eric Brunner-Williams
Eugene, Oregon


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