Re: [ICANN-EU] At Large Members Meeting (Los Angeles, Nov. 12)

[Vittorio Bertola <vb@vitaminic.net>]

On Fri, 13 Oct 2000 17:59:49 CEST, you wrote:

>I will be there, for the ICANN meeting.
>I am assuming to be able to participate, unless there is a time conflict 
>with the DNSO Review Committee (supposing that it will meet).

I'd like to start a discussion (here? on the icann-debate list, which
is quite empty by the way?) about what should we say there. If I'm not
wrong, the theme will be how to organize the membership, and I would
be happy to be able to go there and expose the views of this list
about it. So I'd try to put together a list of points on which there
is consensus here, and maybe a list of points on which there is not
consensus yet, exposing the different ideas that came out. Then, as
soon as we know more about the meeting, we'll see how to present that
- it could be a formal presentation or speech, it could be simply an
informal discussion, it depends on the structure of the conference.
But I think that this is perhaps the most active At Large community
now, and I'd like us to get the lead of the self-organization process.
Personally I think that we must get as much work done as possible
before the end of the year, because some forces in ICANN could easily
try to reduce our rights or wipe away the very At Large Membership
concept before we are strong enough.

So here is a long questions list. I think that we already formed some
consensus on many of these items (in fact, the same charter of this
list can be used to answer many of them), but I'd like to list them
again. If someone spots any issue ever raised that I forgot, please
add it. I don't think that we should start a discussion on all of
those items at the same time, or it will be a mess. So I suggest to
build a list, and then start examining items one or two at a time.

a) Internal discussion: how should members participate to community
life? Should there be discussion boards, and of what type -
moderated/unmoderated, web/mail/Usenet, announcements/general
discussion/debate on specific issues...? should they be supported or
organized by ICANN, or "privately" managed? do they have just to
discuss, or should they get to consensus, and how? how to solve the
problem about different languages?

b) Web sites: should there be an "official" site for every region or
country? should it be supported or managed by ICANN, or by the At
Large Forum if created, or be left to anyone's initiative?

c) Intermediate organization: should there be a formally constituted
At Large Forum and/or At Large Supporting Organization? regional or
worldwide? should it be supported by ICANN (i.e. paid expenses for
meetings...)? how should its members be (s)elected? how should it
work?

d) Relationship with the Director: should the Director be
"independent" from his community and from the At Large Forum, or
should he be asked to consult with the Forum on main issues, or even
be forced to submit his positions to the Forum?

e) At Large elections: are we satisfied with the current process, or
do we want to have it changed and how?

f) Conflict of interests: is it right to allow people who play a role
in other SOs to run for seats in At Large elections? and people who
have direct interests as players in the market, such as ISP or ccTLD
managers?

g) Scope of the membership: should At Large membership just care about
matters directly related to ICANN and DNS, or should it try to promote
Internet self-governance in general?

h) Representativeness: is the different participation among countries
in the same region a problem? should ICANN and/or the At Large
organization take care in promoting membership everywhere? or should
we just say "every country runs for itself"?

i) Membership fee: should membership be free, and supported by the
money collected from the domains market? have a small cost (a few
dollars)? have a high cost (20-100$)? should it be funded by private
efforts as it has been until now, or even by governmental entities if
they want to?

j) Relationship with other non-profit societies: should ICANN At Large
cooperate with ISOC, and ISOC take part in the membership organization
process, as some propose? Or other similar societies? Should the
membership itself try to formally constitute non-profit orgs in each
country?

>P.S.: it seems funny to me that Vittorio and myself will meet in person for 
>the first time on the other side of the earth ;>)

And this will also happen with many other people from this list, I
suppose. And with Andy, of course. By the way, it would be interesting
to know what does Andy think of this meeting, if he will participate,
etc. I'll mail him.

I'd also like, if it will be possible, to prepare an analysis about
election results (I love numbers), so I'm asking Andrew McLaughlin if
they accept to give us some data (I'll ask Andy's help on this).

-- 
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo vb.
Vittorio Bertola     <vb@vitaminic.net>    Ph. +39 011 23381220
Vitaminic [The Music Evolution] - Vice President for Technology



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