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[atlarge-discuss] Website Review : Comments on the Homepage



First I'd like to give proper thanks and recognition to Joop for the excellent job
 and hard work he has devoted to date on the icannatlarge.com website - truly 
constructive and vital in the launch of the movement. As the organization advances 
week by week and month by month, it's inevitable that the website should evolve 
with it, and I hope I'm kicking off a public review of the website, its purpose, 
its appearance, and its ease of navigation.

I thought I'd start today with some comments on the Homepage, as I feel it now 
needs some urgent alterations.

1. I don't like the fist in the logo : it implies negativity (OK I've got a lot of negative 
opinions of ICANN but is that the image we are trying to project to attract new members?). 
We are a positive and constructive movement, building worldwide co-operation : 
shaking hands would be better than a fist. A totally new logo would be even better.

2. We should develop an independent logo which does not need the ICANN 'globe' 
at all. We should not portray ourselves as a subgroup of ICANN but as an entity
 in our own right. Hence...

3. In due course, we need a change of organization name which should feature on 
the new homepage. The URL could still be icannatlarge.com (and a small reference 
to that could feature in a subordinate position) : in a way this would be quite useful 
as we still need to maintain an interface with ICANN and the URL itself would be a 
useful link in that way. However I favour a simpler concept as our organization name - 
something the public and press can latch onto and identify with, and something much 
more global and less obscure than ICANN. I'd propose The Internet Parliament or The 
Internet Democracy Group or something like this. Just suggestions as the possibilities 
probably run into 100's. Nevertheless I have www.internetparliament.com and 
www.theinternetparliament.com and www.theinternetparliament.org which are available 
for use if required. Fundamentally, icannatlarge.com is not IMO a suitable name, 
as I've explained elsewhere.

4. Chuck Costello's long wordy comments (however valid) should not dominate the 
Homepage. They should be elsewhere. The Homepage must be more graphic and less 
wordy, and should use simple language which explains our mission to new visitors and 
ordinary members of the public.

5. The 'link' along the top should NOT say "ICANN members" - that's really ambiguous, 
not factual, and suggests people are joining ICANN rather than our independent organization 
which MAY interact with ICANN. It opens us to ridicule and charges of unreality. The 
political reality within ICANN right now is that there is NO single At Large organization, 
and ICANN have an initiative to divide and rule through a multiplicity of At Large groups. 
Moreover, the idea that we are asking people to register as ICANN members suggests 
that we a part of ICANN and that our whole organization is "within" the ICANN empire. If 
we really want to encourage individual members to particpate as "members" inside ICANN, 
then I suggest we contact them all and urge them to join the GA - particularly as our 
membership would then become the largest voting block there. I'm sure Jamie Love's present 
motion, for example, would benefit from the votes of our members! However, the Homepage 
does NOT need "ICANN members" as the link title to the list of our membership.

Just a few comments on the Homepage. What do people think? What would people like to see 
on the Website? Can we encourage regional and national websites for our organization as an 
early target, in preparation for mass outreach?

Once again, we owe a debt to Joop for his vision and sheer hard work in launching the website
and moving the organization forward. Nothing in the above statements is intended to detract from
what his efforts have already achieved.

Richard Henderson