Once again, Marc Schneiders has displayed brilliant generosity and placed
trust in our organisation (a trust which we must work hard to justify and
fulfil). Marc has already donated www.icannatlarge.org to the group (which
has been chosen by vote as the name of the group).
Now Marc is also giving us www.atlarge.org which is a key domain name, in
that it publicly mirrors and challenges ICANN's phoney at large which they
promote at www.at-large.org
My advice to the group is to retain the organisation name "IcannatLarge.org"
(with or without the .org) but to make that domain name and all our sites
resolve to www.atlarge.org (as Jefsey has suggested so convincingly all
along).
This will enable us to focus on who we truly set out to be : the true AT
LARGE, the at large org which tries to speak for ordinary internet users all
round the world. With this domain name www.atlarge.org we have an umbrella
which (if we are wise) we will use to draw in many and varied at-large
groups and initiatives from all round the world. While we will continue to
build our ICANN-inheritance identity as the inheritor of ICANN's at large,
we need to now look more broadly to our shared coalition with user-groups
all round the world, and we would be mad to be exclusive.
The site at www.atlarge.org is inspired intuition, offering subdomains for
each and every at large group and organisation around the world, to share
and participate under the www.atlarge umbrella - and offers us the chance to
publicly set up camp beyond Icann, as an official opposition movement to
Icann for all the world to see. By using subdomains, we can now have a true
bottom-up network developing : www.france.atlarge.org and
www.uk.atlarge.org and www.argentine.atlarge.org and
www.southafrica.atlarge.org and www.outreach.atlarge.org and
www.transfers.atlarge.org and www.newtlds.atlarge.org and
www.italia.atlarge.org and www.nz.atlarge.org and www.gay.atlarge.org
and www.digitaldivide.atlarge.org and so on and so on...
We can, indeed, even invite all the members of Denise Michel's "pretend"
Atlarge committee to join our own At Large which has the superiority of
actually having 1000 members already in it, whereas Denise has, basically,
her and Esther! So we should not be hesitant to create our "mirror"
organisation. They can't possibly challenge our use of "at large" when we
can demonstrate that our members were the actual at large all along, and
besides, imagine the press publicity if she tried! We need to be very bold
at this juncture and insist that we - the users of the world - the people
Icann dispossessed by coup - are the true At Large, gathering under the
"AtLarge" domain name at the "AtLarge" website. This is something Icann will
truly detest!
My friends, I have got to a pivotal place (which I expected to happen) in my
relationship with this organisation. I regard it as essential that we truly
utilise this domain name, and thereby adopt the architecture which will most
truly alarm Icann, setting ourselves up as the beginning of a true and
public "at large" governance-in-exile. I am happy to accept that some
members want (with total integrity) to live and work within the constraints
of a narrower "ICANNatlarge" concentrating on creating the at large inside
Icann. I can see that as a viable exercise. But personally it has never been
more than a peripheral part of my vision for the At Large. I made clear in
both elections that I stood for a broader view of the At Large. Therefore, I
will not personally travel on as a panel member, if we fail to grasp the
www.atlarge.org initiative and set it up as the heart of the new At Large.
Certainly, I would continue to lend my support as a member to the narrower
Icannatlarge and wish it well, but at the point we abandon this incredible
opportunity, my personal vision will have started to diverge, and I will
seek to be a panel-member of a different (though related) organisation.
That's how strongly I feel about this.
For most of us, this venture is not a power-trip and positions like "panel-m
ember" should simply be held by those who are committed to the direction an
organisation is going. For me, if we do not choose to resolve our site to
www.atlarge.org , then I would want to be replaced by a member more in
sympathy with the direction of the group.
I am not arguing for "either... or" : I'm arguing for "yes... and... yes" :
I want those who pursue the internal Icann project to do so to their utmost,
but I have to say "yes" too, to the broad far-reaching global "At Large"
project which www.atlarge.org can become. The concept is inspired. I can
believe in it. It is an architecture which will strike fear in Icann, and it
is the only direction I personally believe in.
So my friends, with total good will to you all, I (naturally) put my case.
Not as a threat, but as a personal conviction. I cannot see any sensible
reason for "limiting" our website to the "Icannatlarge" subsection of the
"AtLarge", even though I am happy to draw attention to our historic roots by
using the Name Icannatlarge as our identity (at least until such time as
Icann is removed).
My thanks once again to Marc - he has done a generous thing for us. My good
wishes to you all. And whether as a panel member or a bottom-up regular
member, I will continue to believe in the At Large as a movement which
represents the interests of the many against the greed of the few, and which
I will continue to want to support in each of its many manifestations. For
me personally, I see the At Large as a multi-faceted network of bottom-up
groups, who should each be given a platform within www.atlarge.org to grow
and develop and express - yes - sometimes conflicting views. I do NOT take
the view that we should "top-down" try to define all web content. I take the
view that we should simply be facilitators and enablers, providing a
platform, and letting the many strands of the user community contribute to
the At Large which is theirs.
No doubt we shall have some discussion and debate on this website matter in
the coming days or weeks. It is not a falling-out matter. It is a choice.
And then the people whose choice prevails need to go with that choice and
lead the group and its website in a resolute direction. I believe we can ALL
travel forward resolutely with www.atlarge.org
Kind regards
Richard Henderson
----- Original Message -----
From: Marc Schneiders <marc@schneiders.org>
To: Hans Klein <hans.klein@pubpolicy.gatech.edu>
Cc: Richard Henderson <richardhenderson@ntlworld.com>;
<jefsey@club-internet.fr>
Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2002 9:46 PM
Subject: Re: Further correspondence on atlarge.org!
> Hi Hans, Jefsey and Richard,
>
> Sorry for the delay in responding. You can have it. Let me know how
> and where.
>
> Good luck with the efforts!
>
> Marc
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