Re: [atlarge-discuss] Outreach : brainstorming ideas and looking for responses

["todd glassey" <todd.glassey@worldnet.att.net>]

What we need to do is to cut some deals with the Registrars so that they
forward all newly registered DNS customers to us for registration as part of
the At-Large community. We also need to setup some website kiosk wherein we
can publicize what we are up to and our goals... Perhaps if we can get a
link from YAHOO or AOL we might be in better shape.

Todd

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@ntlworld.com>
To: <atlarge-panel@lists.fitug.de>
Cc: <atlarge-discuss@lists.fitug.de>
Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2002 11:05 AM
Subject: [atlarge-discuss] Outreach : brainstorming ideas and looking for
responses


Help
In order to claim that we represent ordinary users and the internet public,
we need to increase our membership significantly. Otherwise we will be
marginalised as a minority group, whereas the constituency we seek to
promote and represent is in fact millions strong and deserves to have a
critical
executive role in the administration of the DNS and the future development
of the Internet.

ICANN being ICANN, the true voice of the internet majority will always be
sidelined (particularly if it challenges ICANN policy) unless it
negotiates/determines from a position of numerical strength. Size of
membership
is what ICANN will most truly fear, because the larger and wider our
membership, the stronger our claim to be truly representative.

Therefore, the premiss behind the ideas I'm posting (below) is that
mass-recruitment is essential, and that we broaden our remit beyond mere
"technical mission of ICANN" (which will never attract more than a few
thousand) to become an organisation upholding the interests of the
individual
in the Internet, ranging from the way it is run, to consumer issues, to
freedom
and justice. Only if we embrace the issue of "The Future of the Internet" -
as it
impacts on individuals, families, communities with all their various
interests - will
we be relevant to many and grow significantly in numbers.

The following Outreach ideas are not meant to be wholly rational and
"sensible"
in the first instance. They are intended to provoke thought, incite comment,
and
are basically a brainstorming exercise so we can explore collectively the
ways we
might achieve a broader membership. Some ideas you may quite like. Some, you
may rule out completely.

I take the view that most significant Outreach will take place at a national
or local
level, and I regard it as axiomatic that we press forward with establishing
representatives for each country, and websites to accompany that
representation
wherever possible.

OUTREACH IDEAS:

Possible points of access and recruitment:

1. Through University and College Internet Societies and IT departments,
with a
view to a student membership and network. This could be a worldwide feature
of
our movement, but could be promoted best at national level, with a view to
sending
speakers to various campuses. I believe in the idealism of young people, and
they
are a vital recruitment zone.

2. Through Trade Union movements, interest groups, and already-established
organisations at local and national level. We should demonstrate the
importance
of a "free" Internet run by people for people, not dominated by big
business.
We should demonstrate the link between organisations' interests and the
future
and freedom of the Internet. We should seek to affiliate with these
pre-existent
organisations and networks, and seek the representation and involvement of
their
memberships. It may indeed be possible to 'capture' whole membership lists
of
organisations, and link up via e-mail to significantly enlarge our
representation of
individuals.

3. Through a "map" approach, starting with the world, and divisible down to
country and town level, seeking to encourage representation from every town
that
has internet access (and indeed, indirectly, seeking representation from
those villages
and communities that don't). This would be a very graphic method of
demonstrating
our scale, scope and purpose - as an organisation speaking for ordinary
people from
every corner of the globe.

4. Through conventional coverage and development of links with press and
media,
working particularly at national and local level. Publicity and Marketing
are essential,
and strategies should be consciously developed, targetting opportunities and
planning
the timescale and levels of publicity which will be most beneficial.
However, we should
never fall into the trap of 'spin' superceding 'substance', and we should
always put
integrity and truth before image and soundbite.

5. Identifying certain key movements, whether Green organisations,
religious/cultural
groups, UN organisations, commerce or small business groups. Working out the
"interface" and common ground on which to approach them, and demonstrating
how
the future of the internet (and its administration) is vital to them.

6. Negative strategies. I believe it would be very useful to analyse,
develop, and
summarise for publicity, some of the most glaring failures, abuses, and
controversies
ICANN and its close allies have been guilty of. This is all part of the
process of
conviction and argument and recruitment (rest assured, ICANN would not
hesitate
to do the same to us). Clearly, this negative sub-category would merely be a
small
argument in our prevailing positive message.

7. "Themed" initiatives. For example, you develop an initiative called
"Schools of the
World" linking to the theme "Sharing the Future : the Internet for All Our
Children".
In a similar vein to the "map" approach, you try to spread out and involve
as many
schools worldwide as possible. (This would be facilitated if we constructed
links with
eg Teachers' Unions etc.) We try to get a teacher representive (or more than
one) and
we link to interest/education/freedom issues and information. Setting up
(from simple
beginnings) a global movement like this would extend the scope of our
membership,
the importance of a free internet for all children, and the great thing
about schools is
that they are so closely knitted into their communities in so many places.

8. Club membership and affiliation : the world is full of clubs, hobbies,
interests etc.
Set up lists of organisations, listed geographically and by
subject/category. Approach
clubs through national and local representatives. Explain how the Internet
and its future
matters for them. Encourage even just ONE representative to join our
organisation
(and of course, develop from there to involve the rest of their membership
list).

9. Exploiting the mass-following of sport worldwide. Sport is an interface
which is
worldwide. It can be an image of worldwide friendship, involvement and
things we have
in common. And the Internet is a meeting place, a linking place, and a place
for
supporters and players. Take Football for example : using the same "map"
method, you
could try to create a link and representative with as many clubs as possible
in every
country on the planet... "The Internet Future : is YOUR club represented
yet?" Sport is
high-profile. Sport uses the Internet. Clubs may be willing to exchange
links. And
supporters might join up so that their own teams are represented in this
worldwide
process of representation.

10. Dialogue and Targetting Interested Parties. For example, analysis of
whois lists
enables me to see who are the most active domain registrants in the .info
and .biz
roll-outs. Why not enter into dialogue with some of these? Similarly, at
local and
national level, why not analyse, identify and engage webmasters, IT workers,
interested
groups or businesses? In this area we might not enrol such high numbers, but
we would
be attracting a more informed group, and a membership with the kinds of
skills we
could use.

CONCLUSION.

If you've read all this, I applaud your stamina. You could probably think of
another
10 initiatives in place of these. What I'm doing here is more of a "vision"
thing than a
"practical logistics" thing. And these ideas may be kicked into touch by one
or all.
I'm just brainstorming.

But the point I'm trying to make is : without a substantial membership, our
influence is
limited and our claims can be marginalised in the very area we argue most
strongly
- representation.

And yet, if we broaden our scope a little, while keeping ICANN/DNS/"How the
Internet is Run" as a central project, we can create the kind of scale and
representation
(and global representation too) which ICANN knows will have the moral
authority to
demand representation and executive power.

The Internet is a Worldwide resource for all the ordinary people of the
world. The
people of the world have a right to determine its development and its
future. That's
simple democracy. And much as Mr Sims loves to rule out "global democracy"
along these lines, what we are proposing here is in fact something
idealistic and about
freedom and the reality - that the internet has truly become something that
belongs to
ALL the people of the world. Its ideas, its dreams, its freedom, its
sorrows, its charities,
its projects... it is this power for such great good, and for bringing
ordinary individual
people together.

The concept of global representation, and the right of the millions upon
millions of
ordinary people to have a priority over big business in the decisions taken
over the
development of the Internet : this is an ideal which is waiting to be turned
into a reality.
Because it is an ideal (and a beautiful ideal too, because the Internet is
growing so
many creative opportunities for ordinary people) it will face opposition
from those tired,
grey, sordid power-brokers for whom the control of the net is more about
"control" and
"vested interest" and "power"...

But the Internet has unleashed a different kind of power, creative,
democratic,
subversive of dishonesties and stolen power.

So... however impractical some of my brainstorming ideas may seem... I
invite you to tell
ME, in reply, the ways YOU think we can "grow" a membership which truly,
and authoritatively, represents the interests of the ordinary people of the
internet - millions
and millions of them.

Faced with a movement that grows exponentially, and embraces openness and
democracy,
ICANN will find it very hard indeed to exclude its greatest constituency.

Richard Henderson




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