[governance] Speakers for IGF - ideas?

[Dan Krimm]

>Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 12:10:56 +0900
>To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
>From: Adam Peake <ajp at glocom.ac.jp>
>
>Veni,
>
>>The missing link here is still that ICANN outreach probably does not make
>>an effort to connect the techie details to issues of general public
>>interest.  Can you point me to the ads themselves anywhere?  I'd like to
>>see what they contained.
>
>see attached. Quarter page in the front section of adverts in the economist.


How in the world does this appeal for a few particular NomCom volunteers
have *anything* to do with soliciting general public input into ICANN
policy-making process?

I don't see any connection.  Not all ads are equal -- apples and oranges.
Each one should have a specific purpose and be designed and placed to
achieve that specific purpose.  Each can fail in a myriad of ways having to
do with internal mistakes.

How about advertising the policy process that are in action at ICANN, with
calendars for when public comment periods open up (and close), and where to
find the web pages for the comments and the processes?  (And, how about a
clear, non-jargony explanation of what the policies are about, and how they
affect the general public?)

This particular ad is an invitation to apply to become an unpaid volunteer
for ICANN helping to select candidates for positions that have utterly no
meaning to ICANN outsiders at all.  Very few members of the general public
have the time or would qualify for this, and hardly anyone is going to
click on the URL to get more details about something that sounds so arcane
-- whoever wrote the copy of this ad made no attempt to try to understand
the target audience and craft a message that they would even *recognize*,
not to mention *respond* to.  Mistake #1 in marketing.

This is not a general-public ad in the first place.  This ad is about
attracting a few individuals into a deep form of internal ICANN
participation, and does not relate at all to the public comment process on
specific policies.

If one expects this to have any relationship to ads that solicit public
comments on matters of public policy, then that makes no sense.  There's no
connection whatsoever.

But further, if this ad got few responses, it may be because there is no
context for people who aren't already familiar with ICANN, and/or no
substantive motivation as to what the value of participating in this way
is.  If you don't already know what kinds of specific policies ICANN
addresses (other than "the Internet's intriguing technical coordination
problems" that support "the success and stability of an essential global
resource" then this communicates absolutely nothing to a potential
volunteer.

This is exactly my point.  This is a beautiful example of an intrinsically
ineffective ad, unless perhaps it would have been placed in a *jobs
section* or something.  What a waste.

The reason people in the general public ought to be interested in ICANN is
that ICANN's policies affect people *well beyond merely supporting the
technical stability* of the Internet.  If ICANN can't get past that deep
conceptual error, then there is no hope of attracting general public
interest.  You've already sealed your fate before you've gotten out of the
blocks.

An "internationally coordinated multi-stakeholder organization that serves
as a major technical coordination body for the Internet" doesn't sound like
anything that addresses any interesting issues of public policy.  Oh, and
please, try my wonderful over-cooked unseasoned brussels-sprouts.  Yum.

But then, this particular NomCom role requires people to be qualified in
several ways that most people are not (though those requirements are not
stated in the ad -- robust professional network among Internet governance
community, etc.).

I mean, c'mon.  *C'mon*!

Dan____________________________________________________________
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