[atlarge-discuss] ALAC Conference call

[Sotiris Sotiropoulos <sotiris@hermesnetwork.com>]

All,

This morning I took part in the ALAC tele-conference
call.  Here are some notes I took:

Denise started the call out by relaying some feedback from
ICANN's Stuart Lynn.  She said the feedback was mostly
Stuart's personal comments (and _not_ on behalf of the ERC
or ICANN necessarily) on the still very vague concept of
an ALAC.
--------
Feedback as reported by Denise Michel, Stuart was not on
the call (almost verbatim notes, as best as I could so
please don't fault me for trying): Stuart Lynn's
interpretation: ALAC draft ought to expand upon
justification of why there should even be an ALAC; provide
details of its structure.  Also, he noted that current
advisory committees are appointed by the Board, why should
this be any different?  He wanted an exploration of the
council idea and he stated that seats on the nominating
committee for Board elections is an open issue. Also, he
apparently commented on the role of liaisons in the eyes
of the ERC as individuals who help the flow of
communication between the ERC and ALAC.  [I was a bit
unclear about this last bit myself myself, but I made the
note and so here it is.]
---------

After this we launched into a general discussion in which
the theme of elections figured pretty prominently.  Esther
Dyson's comments in an email prior to the teleconference
had underlined the centrality of the issue of elections,
and questions of legitimacy.  Tommi Kaartavi spoke in
support of E. Dyson's comments regarding mention of
elections in our final draft.  Peter Shane had trouble
understanding how we could talk of elections now or later,
when there's no positions for which to be elected. E.
Dyson talked of putting off actual elections for now...but
not necessarily ruling them out later.  I asked why/if the
ALSC study is off the table to which E. Dyson responded:
ALSC recommendations are not off the table. [Indeed, they
are mentioned in her comments on the ALAC draft so far.]
Izumi Aizu said words to the effect that there is
skepticism over direct elections, but also over the
indirect approach, and that he would like to see both
sides come together and articulate how the ALAC can
reasonably propose direct representation without capture
fears.  Denise Michel was skeptical about providing the
details of how elections and direct representation can be
ironed out in two weeks [i.e. prior to the August 16
deadline for this draft for the ERC].  Peter Shane
(InSITeS - Institute for the Study of Information
Technology and Society, www.cmu.edu/insites) stated that
Esther's amendments to the proposal do have merit, but he
added that his group is not an advocacy group, and he was
concerned about representations regarding his
association's official position as per its membership's
collective views on the issues.  He was specifically
concerned by the idea of deferment of elections and he
stressed the fact that he lacked any mandate from his
organization to take a position on the delay or deferment
of elections.

...BREAK.  I will continue this later as a pressing matter
has just interrupted my focus on this report.

Sincerely,

Sotiris Sotiropoulos
        ICANNAtLarge.com ALOC Representative



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