[governance] What happened at the NARALO/ALAC/CCNSO?

[Jacqueline A. Morris]

I don't know why they decided to focus on one and not the other - the
reasons for the Summit should be in the proposal to the ICANN Board, so we
should know then.

I'm confused by the difference you make here between freedom of association
and democracy - if we have an organization in which the decisions are made
by majority vote of the members, how is that not a democratic organization,
or at least an organization that is run on democratic principles? To me,
freedom of association is the ability to associate with anyone that you want
- as opposed to apartheid, for example, where one was prohibited from
associating with people of one's choice based on race. But as one can decide
to join an association where decisions are not made by the membership, they
aren't similar, hence my confusion.  Seems to me that you define both terms
differently?

Also - the At Large has power over ALAC's work schedule and budget
proposals, and the resources assigned to ALAC as the RALOs appoint 10 of the
15, and those reps are there to implement the wishes of the RALO.

"ALAC is there to give ICANN user perspectives on actual policy choices that
ICANN has to make, and if ALAC consistently does not do that, what are we to
conclude?"

Maybe that the users are not interested or not informed enough? If the
latter, then there are things that ALAC can and should do to inform and
educate (and several are underway). If the former, then the ALSes that have
joined and find that they are not interested enough in the policy issues,
should be de-accredited, leaving ALSes that are truly interested in the
issues.

Jacqueline

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Milton L Mueller [mailto:mueller at syr.edu]
> Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 13:21
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Subject: RE: Re: [governance] What happened at the NARALO/ALAC/CCNSO?
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Jacqueline A. Morris [mailto:jam at jacquelinemorris.com]
> >
> >That Milton, is one of the things that we have to accept in a bottom-
> up
> >process that gives the users the power. They may decide to do things
> that
> >you, me, others don't agree with. But if a lot more of them vote to
> spend
> >energy and resources for the Summit and none for the .us contract,
> than
> the
> >ones who vote the other way, that's the democratic process.
> 
> No, Jacky, that's not "democracy" that's "freedom of association,"
> which
> is something I strongly favor but has little relevance to the issue of
> how users are represented in global governance of ICANN issues. This
> freedom of assocation doesn't give "users the power" over anything
> except what to do with their own time and resources -- a freedom they
> already have anyway. They don't need ALAC for that.
> 
> The issue you are studiously ignoring is this: if ALAC is there to give
> ICANN user perspectives on actual policy choices that ICANN has to
> make,
> and if ALAC consistently does not do that, what are we to conclude?
> 
> A number of conclusions are possible. One is that the people who are
> attracted to ALAC are not all that interested in the day to day issues
> of ICANN policy making but in other things... Another is that the
> structure of ALAC tends to encourage its members to do other things
> than
> pay attention to detailed policy issues, because the rewards for those
> other activities are perceived to be higher. Another is that ALAC-ers
> don't feel that they can really influence the specific policy issues on
> which comment is possible, so they choose not to do so and concentrate
> their time on things they feel they can control.
> 
> I don't know which of these is right, if any, but would be interested
> in
> your perspective.
> 
> --MM
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