[governance] Reinstate the Vote

Fri Nov 23 12:04:34 EST 2007

Milton
Who's going to tell users about the vote? Who's going to sit with them in
meetings and consultations and try to explain the issues? Millions of
non-USians won't even hear about the vote. The concept of using groups that
want to go out to interact with users, that volunteer to educate and inform,
is far more likely to create an informed user base than a vote that most
users won't even hear about.
Unless the vote has such a HUGE budget that they can ensure that everyone
affected will hear about it, AND will have enough education and information
to make a reasonable choice... in which case, they might as well fund the
NGOs that are doing this already, some of which have already become ALSes.
Newspaper ads won't reach everyone, radio is better, TV, flyers and posters,
community meetings... all those will be necessary in every community in
every country in order to start to think that the vote is global.

You focus so much on attending ICANN meetings! The ALS of which I am a
member - we talk to  people about the things that affect them. We talk to
them in general terms  - ICANN is mentioned a lot, of course, but it's more
about the issues that ICANN deals with  - not about the processes of the
institution- they don't really care about that. So we work on a local and
regional and international level, and people tell us that we are very
useful. Radio appearances, school workshops, etc. And a vast majority of the
members of the organization have NEVER been to an ICANN meeting, (3 people
have physically been to any sort of ICANN meeting ever) and they don’t
really care about the trip.  They were doing this long before they became an
ALS and will continue anyway. Joining At Large was more about regional and
international networking with other groups that are trying to do the same
thing that we are, and to access information and to participate in
international decision making. 
And a vote won't do any of this education, training, discussion,
consciousness-raising or have any impact on our local and regional issues. 

So with regard to a global vote for ICANN Board members - if it's really
that important to you - go ahead and spend time agitating for it, but I know
that I and the people I work with at home have a lot of things to do that
are not at all linked to a global vote in which our concerns will be a
minority and won't impact our primary issues either. 

So - to me, this is a purely intellectual discussion that has nothing at all
to do with the practicalities of the end user in my experience, and I've
given it more than enough time...

Jacqueline

-----Original Message-----
From: Milton L Mueller [mailto:mueller at syr.edu] 
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 12:39
To: jam at jacquelinemorris.com; governance at lists.cpsr.org;
yehudakatz at mailinator.com
Subject: RE: [governance] Reinstate the Vote

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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