[governance] New membership database: choose your own username

Wed Jan 5 14:27:55 EST 2011

Hi Jeremy
I have been a member of IGF for many years now, I have attended several IGF s 
and have been part of WSIS since its inception. However for the last two years I 
have not received the ballot to vote, in a timely manner. I did get the ballot 
last time after a little scramble but am uncertain if it was included.

 I too am a little concerned about the intent and direction of the changes. 
Having said this my concerns with the new format and criteria are as follows
	1. How do we recognize members like myself who have been long standing members. 
So if my vote was not included in the last elections, am I "reassigned" ? how do 
I have this corrected so I receive the ballot for the next election.
	2. Then there are others who also may be long standing members,but simply opt 
out of voting...does that diminish their status as members?
	3. Then there are serious but non participating members who are observers who 
also should be counted as member  .
	4.  Then there are the true" lurkers' whilst most of us would like to open up 
participation to all individuals who have genuine concern for our work, I admit 
that there is sometimes an uneasy feeling of wondering who is just lurking with 
a  purpose of some " ill doing" . 

So these categories of members raises some questions on what to put in place
	* Should we have some broad eligibility criteria ? 
	* Should we have some sort of periodical scribe - un-scribe process ?
	* Should we establish some " organizational' elements ?
	* Should we have members discussion forum...blog pages or something ?
I personally have followed most discussions with great interest and have found 
them to be very informative and thought provoking. Just havent always been able 
to squeeze in my two cents worth. I would like to be more active in this coming 
year and participate more as needed.

Warm regards to everyone and Happy New year to all !

Shaila Rao Mistry
President
Jayco Interface Technology 
Jayco MMI
Input Technology With A Human Touch

Vice President Public Policy
National Association On Women Buisness Owners

Next Generation Convenor 
International Federation on University Women

________________________________
From: Jeremy Malcolm <jeremy at ciroap.org>
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Sent: Sun, January 2, 2011 3:01:01 AM
Subject: [governance] New membership database: choose your own username

This is long, but important, so please read it.
Before the next poll or election is called, anyone who wishes to participate 
will have to have an account in the new database that I have created to record 
IGC membership.  All those who voted in the last election will also be entered 
into this database. 

We are doing this because, until now, there has been no proper IGC membership 
list, other than the list of subscribers to the governance mailing list (which 
contains many non-member lurkers, duplicate subscriptions and some defunct 
accounts).

The advantages of a maintaining a centralised database is that we can use a 
single list of members (and potential members) for purposes including:

	* mailing list subscription
	* editing content on the IGC Web site
	* determining eligibility to vote for coordination elections and charter 
amendments

Also, we will finally be able to associate names and (optionally) organisations 
with email addresses.  Our inability to do this in the past has been a problem 
for the coordinators.

I will be entering existing members into this database shortly, but I am first 
giving everyone the opportunity to create their own database entry so that they 
can choose their own username.  If you don't choose your own username, you will 
end up with a username like "john.doe".  The username won't be used on the 
mailing list, but will be associated with any content you may create on our Web 
site, and possibly for other purposes in the future.  

To create your own entry in the IGC membership database please visit this new 
page of our Web site:

http://www.igcaucus.org/user/register

When registering, please use the same email address with which you are 
subscribed to the governance list.  This is important because it will enable me 
to flag you as an official IGC member (ie. one who voted in the last coordinator 
elections), if indeed you are one.  (If not, please register anyway - especially 
if you intend to vote at the next coordinator elections.)

Visiting the page above is also the way, from now on, to subscribe to or 
unsubscribe from the governance mailing list.  (Unfortunately due to software 
limitations, your password for the mailing list Web site won't be automatically 
set to the one you choose when creating your database entry - you'll need to set 
it again when logging in there, or use any password you may have had there 
before.)

Existing subscribers to the governance mailing list who have not voted in the 
list election will not automatically be added to the database.  So, if you did 
not vote but are nonetheless an active participant, you should register yourself 
using the link above.  If you don't, your mailing list subscription won't be 
touched, but you won't have access to participate in polls or to add content to 
our Web site.

Thanks, and please let me know if you have any questions.  You have one month 
from now to create your own database entry if you wish, before I will create 
entries for all the missing members.

PS. Since this email is long enough already, I'll be writing separately about 
some of the other "phase 2" improvements to our Web site.

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm
Project Coordinator
Consumers International
Kuala Lumpur Office for Asia Pacific and the Middle East
Lot 5-1 Wisma WIM, 7 Jalan Abang Haji Openg, TTDI, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +60 3 7726 1599begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +60 3 7726 
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