[atlarge-discuss] WG-OUTREACH 003 - Update and Action List

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@ntlworld.com>]

Friends -

This is a review of a number of possible actions which we should consider on
the Outreach front:

Firstly, I'd like to clarify the membership of this Working Group and extend
an invitation to anyone else who would like to participate in it. Current
WG-OUTREACH participants:

Roberto Roggiero, Sotiris Sotiropoulos, Joey Borda, Judyth Mermelstein,
Gabriel Pineiro, Jeff Williams, Ron Sherwood, Bruce Young, Erick Iriarte
Ahon, YJ Park, Satyajit Gupta, Jefsey Morfin, Richard Henderson

Action 1: Constructing a list of sympathetic organisations we could contact
with an invitation to individuals to join us. Typical example- Judyth
mentioned the Women's Human Rights Net  http://www.whrnet.org . Another
typical example of a useful interface which Elisabeth drew to our attention
can be found here: http://lists.kabissa.org/archives/pambazuka-news/ . Danny
also drew attention to CECUA at www.cecua.org . There are hundreds or
thousands of these organisations, and we need someone to work on a list of
them to contact. This task could also be devolved to various national
representatives to identify groups which are specific to their own locality.

Action 2: Drafting an "Introductory Letter and Appeal to Join" to send to
the orgs and groups listed above.

Action 3: Contacting members from the members list and inviting them to
nurture atlarge groups and recruitment in their specific countries. We have
the membership details (you can also find them at www.theinternetchallenge)
and I think it is time to contact them in over 70 specific countries and see
how much they really want to get involved. Ideally we want to identify at
least one national co-ordinator in each country (like Gabriel Pineiro in
Argentina). Where this fails, we look to a regional co-ordinator. In some
cases we can even co-ordinate more locally than even national level - for
example, Bruce has offered to take responsibility for the US Pacific North
West.

Action 4: Consideration of Jefsey's www.atlarge.org structure which would be
perfect to support a nation by nation approach like this. The notion of a
bottom-up movement needs a bottom-up approach to website proliferation.

Action 5: Press/Media release on the emergence of our organisation, its
aims, and battle with Icann.

Action 6: Constructing a list of press/media contacts to send the press
release to, ideally preceded by personal e-mail or phone calls. This task
can also be devolved to national levels. Judyth, I know, has a useful list
of press contacts. I have a UK list.

Action 7: Demonstration of Relevance - in the context of Hans appeal for
articles, I suggest we post pages on our website which state (a) the
historic background of the AtLarge (b) Icann's thwarting of the AtLarge
movement and its present ploys (c) Articles written by panel members on
relevant issues, as Hans has proposed. For myself, this is likely to be a
demonstration of Icann's abandonment of ordinary users/consumers as
demonstrated in the roll-out of the New TLDs. I think Judith Oppenheimer's
masterly list of reasons for an organisation like ours (Aug 22) deserves a
page of its own, under the title "Why participation is important". So does
Bruce's CircleID article.

Action 8: Would it be helpful to have our own List for Outreach-related
mail? This has been raised before and I'd appreciate comments on this and
help setting one up. Judyth drew attention to:
http://cairns.altnews.com.au/lists/.I think, ideally, we avoid Yahoo lists
etc. Does Hans have an overall strategy in mind for lists for WGs?

Action 9: Considering the development of a Student movement for the AtLarge,
and how we can create an interface with Student organisations and groups all
over the world. Students are often at the forefront of activism and there is
already a student network set up and in existence all over the world, so why
not involve it? This is an area where an idealistic democratic organisation
like ours can make inroads that a 'corporate-supporting' ICANN could never
hope to do... at least, if we set out our pitch in advance and demonstrate
that Icann is part of "them" and "the problem". Is there someone who can
gather together a list of Student and Academic contacts?

Action 10: A letter specifically drafted with Students in mind, explaining
their freedoms, their internet, and the threats posed by Icann and its USG
overseers.

Action 11: Translation into French and Spanish and German etc of key pages
on our website, particularly recruitment pages and key information pages.
Initially, identifying volunteers who would be prepared to do this, at least
in a limited capacity.

Action 12: Bruce (on 21st August) kindly offered to take on the
co-ordination role for this WG and I would gladly endorse him if others are
in agreement. Bruce has throughout taken a calm and conciliatory approach,
and I think he would be well suited to the task. For my own part, I am happy
to continue as an active member of the WG, but I want the freedom to diverge
and explore other ways of developing the AtLarge if our mission here becomes
too narrow and Icann-centric : so I propose Bruce as co-ordinator of this WG
if he is willing to take this on.

Action 13: Drafting an update or new version of our present "Regional"
webpage.

Action 14: (linked to other areas, not just Outreach) We said that we would
send out newsletters to the membership from time to time. At what period of
time? And can the Outreach WG have a section in these newsletters? Can we
press the panel to determine the policy on newsletters to members, and to
agree on a clear Outreach element in these letters, ideally drafted by
someone in this Working Group? Your views?

AOB?

Richard






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