[governance] Reinstate the Vote

Thu Nov 22 09:13:24 EST 2007

Hi Milton
I believe that direct voting by individual internet users will continue to
skew towards specialist and tech-savvy people in developed countries who
have consistent and adequate internet access, access to information about
the vote etc. The ALS model works to get information to and from users who
are affected by, but not motivated or know enough or are connected enough to
find out that there's a vote, where and how to vote, etc. 

There are ALSes that send people out to remote rural villages that do use
the Internet (slow access, email only sometimes)  but these users do not
spend their time following these processes. These ALS members have a
consultation - explain the issues, discuss how they will affect those users,
and return with information on how those users see specific issues. 

That's the educational and outreach value of the ALS structure. Since the
Caribbean ALSes have formed, there's all sorts of projects that I've seen to
educate and inform the internet-using public about governance and technical
issues  - in schools, radio programmes, etc. I have been informed that this
is not just in the Caribbean either... so there's value in the ALS model
that is not there in "direct representation"

But if there were to be another "global election"...

What can you suggest to make sure that a global vote catches as many people
as possible in the net? What's the minimum acceptable participation? Of 1
billion, what % would count as a representative global election? Can we do
this properly without IDN implementation? As that might discriminate against
non-ascii script users? How many languages should the ballot be in? How
should the information be disseminated to make sure that EVERY user knows
about the vote and the issues? 

It might make sense in the future when we're all connected from birth, but
right now, any election would not be truly 'global"

jacqueline

-----Original Message-----
From: Milton L Mueller [mailto:mueller at syr.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 10:19
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; yehudakatz at mailinator.com
Subject: RE: [governance] Reinstate the Vote

Yehuda:
It is good to see your support for this very simple and basic form of
accountability, which ICANN abandoned in 2000 after the party slate lost the
election in the US and Europe.

This form of public input is far more meaningful than the ALAC, which
requires people to invest hundreds of hours creating and maintaining
organizations which is simply not economically viable given the small stakes
individual internet users have in domain name issues.

To support democracy in ICANN about all you can do now is: 
* provide input to ICANN's At Large AC review process, which will be
starting soon 
* Make comments in the US Government's February proceeding
* if you have lots of time to wast^^ spare, get involved in ICANN at large
itself and advocate that position. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: yehudakatz at mailinator.com [mailto:yehudakatz at mailinator.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 12:45 AM
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Subject: [governance] Reinstate the Vote
> 
> To:
> Mr. Kieren McCarthy
> General Manager of Public Participation
> 
> Ok Kieren lets work together,
> 
> I would like the Voting mechanism reinstated,
> which that was taken away shortly after the Elections in October of 2000
> Ref.: http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr21sep00.htm
> 
> Please layout the path for us to accomplish this.
> (walk me through it)
> Which Icann list(s) need posting to?,
> Who should we contact directly?
> and How should we best approach the subject matter?
> (provide us some suggested text)
> 
> Thnx
> y
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