Re: [ICANN-EU] Slides: Mailing lists as tool for member organization.

[Alexander Svensson <svensson@icannchannel.de>]

Dear Thomas!

> Please have a look at <http://www.guug.de/~roessler/mdr.pdf>.  I'm
> planning to submit this for the At Large Members Forum.  It's
> currently in the form of a simple slide show.

Thanks for the effort!
I have the feeling that the role of the proposed Working
Groups might need further clarification. I presume you 
meant an input-gathering Working Group process where the
WGs don't have any delegated decision-making powers; if so,
I agree. (WG powers has been an ICANN issue before -- c.f. 
http://www.dnso.org/wgroups/wg-d/Archives/msg00513.html).

However, it partly remains a question of numbers. In the
presentation, you said it was inspired by what someone told
you about the W3C's working group process.
I had a look at a WG which is probably one of the larger W3C 
groups: The XML Protocol Working Group. There are 77 members 
*representing 45 organisations* and 1 expert/observer.
Companies can organize such a way of participation more easily,
e.g. a principal member and an alternate member representing
Hewlett Packard are sufficient to make the company feel 
represented. What if 100 or more individuals are interested in 
joining a UDRP Working Group? (C.f. DNSO Working Groups
statistics at http://www.dnso.org/statistics/tab-2000102906.html)

| To allow rapid progress, Working Groups are intended to be small 
| (typically less than 15 people) and composed of experts in the 
| area defined by the charter.
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process/Process-19991111/activities.html#GroupsWG

The W3C process provides solutions for the problems of
-- WGs out of scope of the whole organization's activities
   (by defining W3C "activities")
-- WG members not seriously commited to the WG charter
   (by defining "good standing")
-- deciding whether consensus has been reached
   (by letting the Chair decide, following guidelines)
-- dealing with majority and minority views
   (by recording both, having an appeals process etc)

That doesn't necessarily mean that these solutions are the
right ones for us, but that these are probably problems
we will also have to face. 

Best regards,
/// Alexander

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