May I refine what I hath scritto'd? Original scritto below. I don't think there is a need for anyone in this group to 'question what at-large is about'. Anyone who has been involved should know the face value of what it is. However, as designed, we all have our various foci (?focuses?) -whatever. And thus the reality of At-Large. Anyway moving along.... What I have thus stated was a point of view coming from where I stand. Here it is, in short... My focus is on the end-user (Internet user). However at the current state of flux in the universe, quite frankly the 'average' Internet user couldn't care less - from my own empirical research. Blame it on the complacency of society or too much tv, it don't matter. And, I for one, as an Internet user, wouldn't care either. Why should I if they were doing their job, right? I've got things to do. Oh, we can pretend they care and we can inform them, sure. OK. Let's go poll grandma about what she thinks about IPv6. No, there's other approaches that yield the same results - and most of y'all know this part much better than I do. So, yes outreach and jump up and down. We need to at some point. I am right now. I look at ICANN as a facilitator rather than a quasi-government, a viewpoint I've developed over the years to give me peace. So therfore, turning to registrants.... A constituency that has long been ignored. The ones who literally built the ground that we are walking on and who fund our reason for typing these useless messages and who sit and roam among us. Are they not Internet users? Are they not ICANNs end-user and reason of existence? As I recall, it is the Domain Name System and not the I have an email address System. It is the TCP/IP and not the GOP. Gimme an amen. In summary, we (I) can't forget about either of the above as end-constituencies because they both feed from one another, as which does ICANN. But let's not forget - wireless users, nonprofits, trademark holders, attorneys, telephone companies, cable companies, spammers, cybersquatters, investors, and everyone in between, because collectively WE are At-Large. I appreciate all your time in contributing to at-large. aloha, Randy Glass A@L ---------------
From previous email to list: -- All-in-all, I think it's the end-users that At-Large is all about. However, at the current time it is very difficult to expect that 'the individual user' could care less about ICANN or its policies. Since most policy decisions ultimately effect the registrant, it is sufficient to say that they are currently the end-user of ICANN.
When talking to people, most people in the industry are still unaware of ICANN, let alone the individual Internet user with an email address. This is where the 'educating' comes into play. I'm not sure if there ever will be a time when the 'Internet user with an email address' will ever have a concern about ICANN. However, the individual registrant is greatly effected by anything that ICANN does or says. Time will tell. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On 7/26/07, Vittorio Bertola <vb@bertola.eu> wrote:
Brendler, Beau ha scritto:
Randy brings up an important point here -- I think ICANN and the At-Large community need to find ways to help consumers figure out why they should know what ICANN is, and what it does (and what it doesn't do, or can't do, for that matter). This is going to be critical to ALS outreach, especially if the community is seeking participation from consumer groups, as it did with us (we got involved via an invitation from Consumers International). Consumer groups have limited time and resources and are not going to pay much attention if the concerns of the At-Large boil down to the rights and concerns of registrants.
Until now the At Large has been more concerned with registrants, but this is IMHO because of two reasons: 1) the lack of a proper "registrant constituency" in the GNSO or elsewhere at ICANN, and 2) the lack of awareness and participation by other types of groups that are nearer to the "pure user" of the Internet. As both things are changing, I would expect the At Large to move more towards the end user side.
In any case, I think that our role is to consider all different viewpoints and be sure that we report all of them, and that whatever we propose is reasonable to all the subgroups that participate through us, including the non-technical, non-registrant user of the Internet.
(A note to John - I would not use the term "vanity registrant" for the kind of individual registrants that we currently also represent; often individuals use domain names for their professional activities, their home or small office businesses, their associations, hobby groups, non-profit campaigns or whatever. It's not just a matter of vanity, nor than it is for any other kind of business or non-profit.) -- vb. Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu <-------- --------> finally with a new website at http://bertola.eu/ <--------
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