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Esther Dyson wrote:
>
> Thanks, ALexanderl
>
> to ampligy on the RALOs, as I understand it, the idea is not to bless a
> single organization to form a RALO< but to get all the "at-large
> structures" in a region to join together to *form* the RALO. In order for
> that to happen, obviously, the RALO is unlikely to be able to have much
> character of its own... it's merely a collection of individual orgs (and
> perhaps people) with a variety of opinions of their own. The key
> requirement for the RALO is that its membership be open. The idea is more
> to have some structure to communicate through to all the constituent orgs,
> than for the RALOs to be thick organizations themselves. Instead, they
> should be broad.
>
>
I don't know, Esther - I've read the "Blueprint for Reform" and the
At-Large Advisory Committee Assistance Group (ALACAG) Report that describes
the "Regional At-Large Organizations" (RALOs). The RALOs seem formless and
vague, lacking any characteristic that would motivate existing organizations
(*or* individuals, should the option be provided) to choose to join them (and
thereby dilute and dissipate their influence with ICANN). The RALOs don't
appear to point the way towards Internet democracy, which I feel should be
the ultimate goal of the At-Large.
As I read the ALACAG Report I was reminded of Hillary Clinton's attempt in
the early 90s to devise a national health-care system, itself a laudable
goal. The "single payer" function of the Federal Government would be
exercised through negotiations and contracts with so-called regional "health
care alliances" among insurers and providers. These were groups that
historically, had never pulled cooperatively in harness before. Why should
they start doing so now, just because the Federal Government was providing
the money? And nowhere in the proposal was any means provided for the
public, the ultimate recipients of health care, to express their needs and
preferences and thereby provide policy guidance for the "health care
alliances." No one bought into the concept, and it foundered. We're left
with the same hodge-podge we started with, and there are still around 40
million people in the US without a health plan.
The analogy between RALOs and "health care alliances" isn't perfect,
admittedly, but I'm convinced that the ALACAG failed to learn from history;
they just didn't try hard enough...
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