I certainly agree with Fatimata,  and further contribute the suggestion that builds on discussion regarding outreach in LA, where radio or radio style / podcast materials were discussed... From our current regular briefings suggestion, we could aim to create something along thew lines of what has recently been done in the outreach to Internet Users in my own ccTLD  http://www.letstalknet.com.au

CLO

From: alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Fatimata Seye Sylla
Sent: Thursday, 13 December 2007 2:15 AM
To: Thompson, Darlene
Cc: policy@icann.org; At-Large Worldwide
Subject: Re: [At-Large] Scheduling regular telephonic policy briefings on Policy for the At-Large Community

Hello all,

I really appreciate Evan's comment but I think we should try Nick's idea combined with Darlene's because most of us really need to get more  posted on all policy issues.  Some of use may find it more convenient to have a time set up  to participate to a "workshop" and be committed to it instead of having a choice of  going online to read materials whenever appropriate. 

Fatimata

On Dec 12, 2007 9:55 AM, Thompson, Darlene <DThompson@gov.nu.ca> wrote:

Excellent comments, Evan,

If memory serves, though, I seem to remember Nick(?) mentioning to me
that they tried something similar before but nobody showed up so we may
not experience the problem of hundreds and thousands getting on the
telephone conferences.

That being said, that shows that there IS a problem with just doing
telephone conferences.  Everybody learns in different ways so I would
lean more to having a two-pronged approach:  the telephone conferences
AND having the policy briefings on-line.  That way people can pick the
way they want learn things.

The telephone conferences would go a long way to bringing us "regulars"
up to speed so that we will be able to communicate on issues better.  I
know that this won't be reaching EVERYBODY but if even some of us become
better educated, then we can help to point the general public to the
appropriate sources of information.  I don't see the telephone
conferences as being a be-all-end-all but just a good start.

Just my opinion and its good to see ICANN trying SOMETHING!

D

Darlene A. Thompson
Community Access Program Administrator
Nunavut Department of Education/N-CAP
c/o P.O. Box 1000, Station 910
Iqaluit, NU  X0A 0H0
Phone:  (867) 975-5631
Fax:  (867) 975-5610
dthompson@gov.nu.ca

-----Original Message-----
From: alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org

[mailto: alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Evan
Leibovitch
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 9:35 AM
To: Nick Ashton-Hart
Cc: policy@icann.org; At-Large Worldwide
Subject: Re: [At-Large] Scheduling regular telephonic policy briefings
on Policy for the At-Large Community

Hello Nick,

The plan to do regular policy briefings on issues determined by ALAC is
a great idea and long overdue, but the delivery mechanism of the
conference call is suitable for little more than a small clique. Given
that the target audience is not just ALAC or ALS representatives, but
indeed all ALS members and beyond, though, I would suggest that
telephone conference calls are not the optimal medium for distribution.

Personally, I find conference calls beyond 20 people unwieldy and
inefficient; all it takes is one or two people to be on speakerphone for
a call to be almost unlistenable. As we want a target participation in
the hundreds if not thousands, forget telephone interactivity; it might
as well be a recorded message. No matter when you schedule the calls
they will be inconvenient to some significant proportion of the target
audience, and then of course is the unavoidable issue of language
diversity.

I would suggest, in the early going, that we start with the written word
-- clearly explained policy briefing available online, in multiple
(_layman's_) language versions. This then gets augmented with an input
mechanism to receive questions (email and/or web form); answers are
collected and posted alongside the original core briefing documents.

After all, ICANN is about the Internet, not the POTS(*) network.
Large-scale interactive sessions can take place using mechanisms such as
Internet Relay Chat, Skype or even MSN, in a manner that can keep
communications channels "open" in every time zone while being infinitely
more cost-effective (and of higher transmission quality) than conference
calls.

The first thing that came to mind during the mention of telephone calls
was doing podcasts; this would indeed be exploiting technology worthy of
our current century. However, before getting into that level of ambition
I would prefer to concentrate on the quality of the content. Let's
ensure that what is said in the briefings is suitably accessible by the
public, not just we elite who are actively involved and closest to the
source.

I truly appreciate this initiative and want it to serve the purpose of
At-Large; I would just ask that, from the outset, its aim in both
content and delivery, meets the needs of the whole community we are
charged to serve. A small shift in approach will lead to both wider
reach AND cost savings.

Evan Leibovitch
Chair, NARALO


(*) -- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_old_telephone_service

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--
Fatimata Seye Sylla
Presidente Bokk Jang Bokk Jeff
Coordonnatrice ACSIS - Senegal
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