A lot of historic info about the At Large elections here <http://www.naisproject.org/> (5 regional elections, one was OK, 3 were abused one way or another, 1 had an extremely low turnout.) Not worth re-hashing, but anyone who wasn't involved may find the information from the nais project useful (disclaimer, I was a member of the group. Izumi Aizu, AP region recently elected member of ALAC also a member.) Worth remembering that while anyone interested had the right to vote in the election, once their vote was cast that was it. No means for them to communicate with the candidates, no way for those voters to influence or get involved in policy. It was vote and then nothing. The ALAC structure attempts to build participation into the process. Gives users (hopefully) a role in policy development and implementation, but at the moment no direct role in selecting leadership positions (NomCom introduced to do that -- and *we need help* finding candidates! <http://nomcom.icann.org>). Which is why the possibility of ALAC being able to again directly select board members (and perhaps members of the other supporting organizations) is such an important reason for trying to make the RALO structure work (in my opinion). Adam
Danny Younger wrote:
Re: The "global" elections way back when didn't include 1.3 million Trinidad and Tobago people, and it didn't represent me. The LACRALO represents me.
When Ivan Moura Campos was elected by the Latin America and Caribbean region in the year 2000, the people of Trinidad/Tobago had a representative for their Region sitting on the ICANN Board. Now you have no representation on the Board whatsoever and yet you blithely choose to believe that the LACRALO "represents" you.
As I have said already many times, this obsession with voting and direct representation, without any analysis of what are the results of it, is not uncommon in North America, but not supported in most of the rest of the world. I have no doubt that somebody might think that the internet users in the villages in south-east Asia, to make an example, were absolutely excited years ago to be represented by Katoh-san (incidentally, an excellent Director). But what do "they" think? As for my European representative at the time, I have sent two messages to my elected representative on the Board, and got zero replies. I am sure that I should have been excited by the power that I had as an internet user with an elected representative on the Board. I don't know why, but I was not. You mantion Ivan. He was elected representative of LAC. When the terms of the elected directors expired, he was appointed again, with a different mechanism. Can somebody explain to me why the very same person, that was the angel of the providence in his term, became the unrepresentative devil in the second term?
The LACRALO only represents you to an Advisory Committee that has no power at all.
If you wish to take comfort in your powerlessness just because there is now a modicum of outreach to your community, then go ahead and be comforted. But don't expect the rest of us that still respect the White Paper principles to agree to a Board that isn't properly balanced with at-large directors seated on half of that body.
"the rest of us" is who, exactly? And since we are at it, what exactly has been done in the interest of the individual internet users worldwide during the golden years in which there were AtLarge Directors on the Board? And by which mechanism the individual internet users worldwide were able to present issues, develop policy documents, express opinions (like the ones that ALAC has developed and presented to the Board via a powerless liaison)?
Your model of "participation" instead of "representation" has been roundly rejected by almost all North American Civil Society organizations that won't lend their good names to a fraudulent effort.
Thank you for confirming that this is a North American attitude (at most). I understand that, since you have a preference for the old model, you oppose the creation of a RALO in your region. Fair enough. What I don't understand (actually, this is a figure of speech, because I think I do understand it very well) is why you want to eliminate the RALOs that are starting to function in the other regions.
You don't see CDT, or EFF, or EPIC joining your charade... they still have principles.
The ~100 principleless ALSes that have joined will probably appreciate your remarks. Incidentally, didn't you apply as well as ALS some time ago?
Anyway, I will be glad to check the situation with you in two years.
Regards, Roberto
<as I am not subscribed, this message will never get to the NA-DISCUSS list, sorry>
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