RE: [atlarge-discuss] Supporting an At Large Alliance outside ICANN

["Abel Wisman" <abel@able-towers.com>]

This is close to what I wrote earlier today, what Jeffsey has in mind
and I support this, let's make it real bottom up.

I would like to start with creating uk.atlarge.org together with
Richard, if he is willing, and show what can be done.

Abel


-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Henderson [mailto:richardhenderson@ntlworld.com] 
Sent: 03 November 2002 21:05
To: atlarge-discuss@lists.fitug.de
Subject: [atlarge-discuss] Supporting an At Large Alliance outside ICANN


I am writing to propose an alliance for all At Large members,
supporters, groups and also sympathetic organisations who want to
publicly back the principles of a worldwide AtLarge movement.

What is the AtLarge movement? It is the coalition of individuals and
groups who believe that millions of ordinary internet users should be
fully represented in the way the Internet and its DNS is administered.

At present, this function is carried out by Icann, which is a largely
unaccountable clique of 'insiders' who have thrown out the user
representatives that were supposed to sit on its Board.

To contain dissent, Icann has developed a site at www.at-large.org which
purports to represent the cause of users, but is actually a top-down
effort to control the disenfranchised voices of the internet public.

The real AtLarge, where users can speak for themselves, is to be found
at groups like IcannatLarge.org/.com and a wide variety of local and
regional organisations. Beyond these groups, the AtLarge is - quite
simply - all the people in the world who benefit from this world
resource.

For the Internet is a precious world resource, for sharing information,
for communicating and educating, for development and co-operation, for
families, for children, for the lonely, the creative, for everyone. It
is 'OUR' internet, with so much potential for good - and yet it is being
administered by a tiny clique in league with wealthy players, who have
locked out the representatives of the world's ordinary users by removing
them from its Board.

In response to Icann's www.at-large.org (which is trying to contain the
AtLarge community inside an Icann committee) I propose the construction
of www.atlarge.org (currently registered for the real AtLarge
community).

This construction was first proposed by Jefsey Morfin, and the concept
is to create an umbrella where a coalition of AtLarge organisations and
supporting individuals can unite in an alliance OUTSIDE Icann and its
mechanisms, and yet demand a restoration of representation for ordinary
people at its heart.

The operation of www.atlarge.org would be truly bottom-up, by enabling a
multiplicity of voices and groups to post to sub-domains and create a
real, diverse, and bottom-up voice for the true AtLarge community.

Thus an atlarge group in France might develop www.france.atlarge.org or
a group in London might develop www.london.atlarge.org . Brazil users
might develop www.brasil.atlarge.org and whole regions could also
participate, developing identity for example at www.africa.atlarge.org .

Equally, ordinary internet users wishing to develop debate on important
issues might participate at www.registrars.atlarge.org or
www.transfers.atlarge.org to publicise AtLarge voices on matters of
internet governance. Those wishing to protect AtLarge interests in
Icann's 'mock' atlarge mechanism, could publicise their dealings at
www.icann.atlarge.org .

The significance lies in insisting that, while the AtLarge seeks to be
an integral part of Icann for as long as Icann exists, the real AtLarge
is far bigger than Icann, and exists OUTSIDE it in the real world, as an
independent movement and coalition.

Thus I am proposing the construction of www.atlarge.org in direct
juxtaposition to the Icann-invented www.at-large.org (with a hyphen -
which is being used to 'legitimise' the disenfranchisement of the
AtLarge community, and its expulsion from the Icann Board).

This act of expulsion - against the whole spirit of the Internet and
indeed contrary to Icann's own mandate - is an affront to ordinary users
everywhere, and in the long-term could threaten freedoms and truth. The
control of the DNS and how the Internet operates is a matter of huge
potential importance.

To this end, I propose that supporting organisations and groups are
invited to post pages at www.atlarge.org in order to broaden and
publicise the political and moral dimension of the struggle for internet
freedom. So, a group of Greens in Scotland could post support and views
at www.green.atlarge.org and democrats in Canada could develop a
dialogue too at www.democrat.atlarge.org .

The construction I propose is an ever-broadening multiplicity, the
creation of an umbrella for an AtLarge coalition - not an organisation
itself, but purely a facility, under the guardianship of sympathetic
AtLarge representatives.

Unless the AtLarge community establishes a rallying point, and an
alliance of protesting voices, visible to the public and the US
government which protects Icann, the cause of ordinary people will be
engulfed in Icann's false 'at-large' and marginalised to powerless
committees and sub-committees, lost in a labyrinth of procedures,
designed to sideline the very people all over the world who should be at
the heart of Internet governance : its ordinary users.

I therefore urge the adoption of this proposal - on a provisional one
year basis to discover how well it works, in the cause of internet
freedom and the voices of the AtLarge.

I am part of the panel, elected by ordinary users, at IcannatLarge.org.
This organisation is sincerely upholding the cause of representation of
ordinary users. It is not threatened by the www.atlarge.org proposal.
The proposal is an added facility, creating a vital link with the other
AtLarge initiatives. Indeed, I hope that IcannatLarge.org may act as a
guardian, and support the rallying together of all AtLarge communities.

I care about my own organisation, but I care about all the other AtLarge
groups around the world as well, because in our different ways and with
diverse voices, we share ideals and we deeply believe that Internet
users should play a central part in the protection of the Internet.

When it comes to AtLarge groups we do not think 'them' and 'us' : it is
'we' - a multiplicity of groups, a coalition of voices - who can most
effectively present to the world the REAL AtLarge. We need to argue our
case, on our own ground, not Icann's, from a position of coalition and
strength.

The construction of www.atlarge.org will stand in direct juxtaposition
to www.at-large.org (Icann's pretence), to highlight the lie, and will
be an act of defiance saying to Icann and even the US Government : we
shall NEVER be subsumed, we reject our expulsion, we will fight for the
millions of ordinary people, for the voice of free people everywhere :
we are many, you are few. We are diverse. We are bottom-up. We are HERE!

Richard Henderson



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