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

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

Yes - www.uk.atlarge.org can start straight away - we can work on this
together

Please panel, release www.atlarge.org - you don't need to be fearful - this
is a good mission with good intent - just please let it fly

Richard H

----- Original Message -----
From: Abel Wisman <abel@able-towers.com>
To: <atlarge-discuss@lists.fitug.de>
Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2002 10:24 PM
Subject: RE: [atlarge-discuss] Supporting an At Large Alliance outside ICANN


> 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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