Evan, The issue of local user participation ended up being less then optimal due to a couple of reasons. First, repeated requests for a room to host users was blocked - ewith the excuse given that rooms were not free. Of course that was not the case as the at large room was pretty well free when we were nothere. Icann and some alac members expressed the vire informally that a local user event was not in "in the remit of at-large" any sensitive ssues might require that "a formal appology" be given to thee egyptian govt offcials. When aked directly if the video could be shown at the enf of at alac meeting cheryl stated to me that it was possible, only if it was screen by her. I was not awarethat the chair has ever had vetting righs on content Local users did want to come, but with no possible ok from the chair or nick, an adhoc session had to be organized. With little adcance notice - of course few people came. Whilei was very disappointed with the turnout - it was good to see who did attend. It was mainly just the north americans. The rest , well did not seem interested. That alac and at large present did seem interested does not mean that local users did not want to meet us. Comments and blog posting in key MENA sites clearly show that the locals did want to meet us. On the larger issue of engagement, namely virtual participation - I was shocked by the lack of effort undertaken. No dial-in, no open skype (voice) chat, no virtual questions. While in the past (san juan, la, etc) dial-ups did take place - nothing was done in cairo. Voip, is easy to do - and there is no excuse not to allow for virtual participation. In an age where we are more connected then ever, to do nothing - well, if not to care in the least. Indeed, a formal complaint should b e lodged and actions taken to make sure virtual participation - at alac meetings and other icann sessions is not just considered, but actually done in a way that is effective and participatory. Icann can do better on this, it must .. As for the public forum - indeed it seems that the "public participation director" seems to have had little effect in enhancing public participation at meetings. Can one not learn from the US election and use youtube to seek questions and comments and play them back at thr meeting. Sigh. In summary, I think there is a bottom up interest for participation and dialogue - but these are resisted by management who prefer to control the agenda and keep desenting views to a min. What can be done - well, comment and participate using other channels . Perhaps interested actors would be well advised to submit a letter not to the board, but instead to the incoming adminstration . Robert On 11/12/08, Michele Neylon :: Blacknight <michele@blacknight.ie> wrote:
On 7 Nov 2008, at 14:33, Danny Younger wrote:
I am of the view that the ALAC needs to write a very strong letter to the Board expressing their disgust with (1) the manner in which the ICANN Public Forum session was conducted that allowed for a very limited amount of time within which to interact with the Board and (2) the almost total lack of remote participation opportunities that were available to at-large members.
As someone that attempted to participate remotely, I can't point to a single ALAC session that allowed for meaningful remote participation, nor were audio feeds available for many workshops.
This has to be the worst case of both in-person and remote participation management that I have ever seen at an ICANN session.
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Were there issues with the Cairo meeting? Normally I'd have expected to see at least one press release per day etc., etc., I was also interested in following some of the "action" but couldn't see how
Michele
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