[governance] Reinstate the Vote

[Milton L Mueller]

Jacky:


> -----Original Message-----
> 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. 

Well, all I can say is that the reason most American business people are terrified of such voting is that they conclude (more accurately than you, I am afraid) that such a mechanism would empower the "new Internet world" of tens of millions of Chinese and Indians and, in relative terms, erode their current power. 

> 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.

Jackie, the ALS model does nothing but attract a very tiny number of people who like going to international meetings at the taxpayers' (ICANN registrars) expense. I do not know where you get this romanticized notion of the At Large structure. 

If your concern is participation and empowerment of the less advantaged the ALS system compares very badly to a vote. The calculus is brutally simple.

To express and actuate your policy preferences via a voting system you have to a) know something about the issues and people; b) know when and how to vote and c) allocate a small amount of time to vote. There are some barriers there, especially in a), but that's life, there is no way around it.

Now compare: To actuate and express your policy preference via ALS and ALAC, you have to a) know something about the issues and people; b) devote a large amount of time to local organizing and politicking; c) travel to ICANN meetings (you know as well as I do that people who do not attend have no influence and no other way to express their views; or d) spend a lot of time tracking what your remote ALS "representative" does at ICANN meetings and holding him/her accountable to express your views.

Which is easier? Which is more representative?

> What can you suggest to make sure that a global vote catches as many
> people as possible in the net? 

What can you suggest to make a putatively global ALS system catch more than 100 - 200 people in its net, which is a generous estimate of how many people are involved in ALS's now? Even in the flawed elections held many years ago, in 2000, the number of participants exceeded the number of ALS participants by an order of magnitude in the 100s or 1000s. 


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