Re: [ALAC] ALS certification and decertification votes
Thanks Tijani, Your missing the last call is not important in respect to this discussion, since it quickly became obvious that it was a more complex decsision than we thought and that is why I raised it here. As Evan has said, this becomes relevant in only a very few certification votes, and even fewer of those might be contested - I can recall only a couple in my time on the ALAC. If there is strong support for your position, then we will have to go to ICANN Legal Counsel and the Ombudsman to see whether they believe we could do such a vote and not be able to later understand why the decision was made. Ultimately, although we want to be diligent and make the right decision with respect to each ALS application, we can only go so far. If we cannot trust the staff and Chair to handle delicate issues, then we are already in big trouble. Alan At 02/10/2014 04:51 PM, Tijani BENJEMAA wrote:
Dear Alan,
Unfortunately, I didnt attend the last ALAC call. I do appreciate that this issue was brought to the table.
I do think that the ALS certification and decertification votes should be conducted as confidential votes to avoid any tension or harassment. Even staff and the ALAC chair shouldnt know how ALAC Members voted. We may ask voters to give the rational of their vote, but anonymously.
My fear is that when the ALAC members cast their votes knowing that there will be someone (staff and ALAC Chair) who will see how they voted, they will not vote according to their conscience, they will modulate their choice according the relationship they think staff members and ALAC Chair have with the concerned ALS.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tijani BEN JEMAA Executive Director Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations (FMAI) Phone: + 216 41 649 605 Mobile: + 216 98 330 114 Fax: + 216 70 853 376 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----Message d'origine----- De : alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] De la part de Alan Greenberg Envoyé : jeudi 2 octobre 2014 14:37 À : ALAC Objet : [ALAC] ALS certification and decertification votes
On our last ALAC call, Olivier brought up the subject of whether ALS certification and decertification votes should use secret ballots (such as we used for personnel votes) or not, and it was decided to discuss the issue on the mailing list.
The history is that most ALAC votes are open and it is disclosed who voted which way, with the exception of personnel votes and others that the ALAC explicitly decides should be secret. We have made such a decision of rare occasions. The only example I can recall is when we voted on whether to file objections to the .health new TLDs and we did so to avoid any harassment of ALAC members who voted for such objections.
A couple of years ago, a change was made to certification and decertification votes to change them from open to closed because of one or more objections filed by applicants. There is also a concern that a rejected application could lead to harassment of those who rejected it, and a concern that people might not vote honestly if the result was public (similar to the reason for secret ballots on personnel votes).
I think that this concern should be considered.
However, under our rules and the ICANN Bylaws, ALS certification and decertification decisions may be appealed to the Board. As such, we should be in a position to explain why a decision was made.
Accordingly I offer the following proposal.
ALS certification votes shall be conducted in such a way that there will be no public disclosure of how ALAC Members voted. However, the details of how ALAC Members voted will be available to ICANN At-Large staff and the ALAC Chair to allow them to conduct private interviews with voters to be able to put together a rationale for why any particular decision was made.
Comments?
Alan
_______________________________________________ ALAC mailing list ALAC@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac
At-Large Online: http://www.atlarge.icann.org ALAC Working Wiki: https://community.icann.org/display/atlarge/At-Large+Advisory+Committee+(ALA...)
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Good morning Alan, First of all, I changed my position regarding the decertification: I do agree with Sala that for decertification, a 100% transparency is needed, so I think now that the vote for decertification should be completely open. As for the certification, and as you know Alan, we faced problems with some (yes very few) cases where the RALO was divided in 2 parts with 2 different approaches, and 2 almost equal groups. To be with this group or the other can destroy our relationship with part of the RALO and minimize the level of trust. I think we have to be careful. You spoke about trust in the staff and the ALAC Chair; it is not about trust at all. Its more psychological and it may make some members change their choice because they know it will be known by someone. This is the risk. As for my case, I dont mind if my vote is known and I will not change it in any case, but it is not the case for everyone. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Tijani BEN JEMAA Executive Director Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations (FMAI) Phone: + 216 41 649 605 Mobile: + 216 98 330 114 Fax: + 216 70 853 376 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- -----Message d'origine----- De : alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] De la part de Alan Greenberg Envoyé : jeudi 2 octobre 2014 23:09 À : tijani.benjemaa@topnet.tn; 'ALAC' Objet : Re: [ALAC] ALS certification and decertification votes Thanks Tijani, Your missing the last call is not important in respect to this discussion, since it quickly became obvious that it was a more complex decsision than we thought and that is why I raised it here. As Evan has said, this becomes relevant in only a very few certification votes, and even fewer of those might be contested - I can recall only a couple in my time on the ALAC. If there is strong support for your position, then we will have to go to ICANN Legal Counsel and the Ombudsman to see whether they believe we could do such a vote and not be able to later understand why the decision was made. Ultimately, although we want to be diligent and make the right decision with respect to each ALS application, we can only go so far. If we cannot trust the staff and Chair to handle delicate issues, then we are already in big trouble. Alan At 02/10/2014 04:51 PM, Tijani BENJEMAA wrote:
Dear Alan,
Unfortunately, I didnt attend the last ALAC
call. I do appreciate that this issue was brought to the table.
I do think that the ALS certification and
decertification votes should be conducted as
confidential votes to avoid any tension or
harassment. Even staff and the ALAC chair
shouldnt know how ALAC Members voted. We may
ask voters to give the rational of their vote, but anonymously.
My fear is that when the ALAC members cast their
votes knowing that there will be someone (staff
and ALAC Chair) who will see how they voted,
they will not vote according to their
conscience, they will modulate their choice
according the relationship they think staff
members and ALAC Chair have with the concerned ALS.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tijani BEN JEMAA
Executive Director
Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations (FMAI)
Phone: + 216 41 649 605
Mobile: + 216 98 330 114
Fax: + 216 70 853 376
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----Message d'origine-----
De : alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org
[mailto:alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] De la part de Alan Greenberg
Envoyé : jeudi 2 octobre 2014 14:37
À : ALAC
Objet : [ALAC] ALS certification and decertification votes
On our last ALAC call, Olivier brought up the subject of whether ALS
certification and decertification votes should use secret ballots
(such as we used for personnel votes) or not, and it was decided to
discuss the issue on the mailing list.
The history is that most ALAC votes are open and it is disclosed who
voted which way, with the exception of personnel votes and others
that the ALAC explicitly decides should be secret. We have made such
a decision of rare occasions. The only example I can recall is when
we voted on whether to file objections to the .health new TLDs and we
did so to avoid any harassment of ALAC members who voted for such objections.
A couple of years ago, a change was made to certification and
decertification votes to change them from open to closed because of
one or more objections filed by applicants. There is also a concern
that a rejected application could lead to harassment of those who
rejected it, and a concern that people might not vote honestly if the
result was public (similar to the reason for secret ballots on
personnel votes).
I think that this concern should be considered.
However, under our rules and the ICANN Bylaws, ALS certification and
decertification decisions may be appealed to the Board. As such, we
should be in a position to explain why a decision was made.
Accordingly I offer the following proposal.
ALS certification votes shall be conducted in such a way that there
will be no public disclosure of how ALAC Members voted. However, the
details of how ALAC Members voted will be available to ICANN At-Large
staff and the ALAC Chair to allow them to conduct private interviews
with voters to be able to put together a rationale for why any
particular decision was made.
Comments?
Alan
_______________________________________________
ALAC mailing list
ALAC@atlarge-lists.icann.org
At-Large Online: http://www.atlarge.icann.org
ALAC Working Wiki:
https://community.icann.org/display/atlarge/At-Large+Advisory+Committee+(AL AC)
----------
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ou logiciel malveillant parce que la protection
<http://www.avast.com/>Antivirus avast! est active.
_______________________________________________ ALAC mailing list ALAC@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac At-Large Online: http://www.atlarge.icann.org ALAC Working Wiki: https://community.icann.org/display/atlarge/At-Large+Advisory+Committee+(ALA C) --- Ce courrier électronique ne contient aucun virus ou logiciel malveillant parce que la protection avast! Antivirus est active. http://www.avast.com
participants (2)
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Alan Greenberg -
Tijani BEN JEMAA