I think you've got something here Brett. So, striking while the iron is hot, I have just written a post and set up a forum on the public participation site to throw around some ideas. You can see the post here: http://public.icann.org/remote-participation It also takes up most of the front page of the participation main site in case people don't think I'm serious about this. The forum is linked in that post and also on the front page and can be found here: http://public.icann.org/forum/remote-participation I would strongly urge everyone on this list to use some of their time and talents thinking positively about how we can improve remote participation and to finding solutions to problems. I will be quite candid about what I think will work and not work, and anything that results from these online coversations, I will do all I can to implement. Kieren ---------------------- Kieren McCarthy ---------------------- General manager of public participation, ICANN http://www.icann.org Cell: +1 310 806 1451 Mobile: +44 (0)7932 783686 -----Original Message----- From: Bret Fausett [mailto:bfausett@internet.law.pro] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 10:01 AM To: Kieren McCarthy Cc: At-Large Worldwide Subject: Re: [At-Large] Venue Accessibility I have several ideas about this that I'd like to discuss with you at some point in the Dehli planning stages, Keiren. You can partially solve the time issue by allowing a conversation to take place serially over a period of days. This would allow for a richer dialogue than just "I post question" and "some Board member responds." I think it would mean getting the agenda up, having an email or wiki based dialogue occurring on issues ahead of the meeting, with the Board/ Staff fully engaged as need, so that the conversation culminates in a statement or a handout at the meeting. Bret On Dec 20, 2007, at 9:25 AM, Kieren McCarthy wrote: The response to my plea here will be: "Well the timezone issue makes it impossible." To which I will respond: "So what possible solutions can we come up with?" So can we just miss out these intervening emails and accept that there will *always* been timezone issues and so we should devise ways to improve participation with that in mind. What about: earlier agendas; questions sent prior to a meeting raised during the meeting; possible recap meetings the next day taking in feedback? Other ideas? -- Bret Fausett (skype me at "lextext") smime.p7s is a digital signature http://www.imc.org/smime-pgpmime.html -------------------------------------