What has been done by the ALAC and ICANN to involve the ALSes into the debate ? It has only been a week or so that we actually receive the ALAC mailing list in our mailbox. And this is in read-only mode. As an example, this reply will be moderated once it goes to the alac list. Is this the treatement that ALSes deserve ?
You're reading too much into the list setup. All of the ALAC members are subscribed to the various regional lists, so posting stuff to both lists just gives us duplicates in our mailbox. The ALAC has plenty of problems, but insufficient mail contact isn't one of them.
My understanding is that much of the work of the ALAC is done through teleconferences, which ALSes cannot attend. Another part of the work is done face-to-face during ICANN meetings, where most ALSes cannot afford to send a representativefor a week.
If you want to listen in, I don't see any reason why that couldn't be arranged. I believe the meetings are recorded, so I'll also see whether we can put mp3's on the net. Don't expect to hear anything terribly thrilling, it's mostly about agendas and lists of administrative things that we need to get done. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://johnlevine.com, Mayor "I dropped the toothpaste", said Tom, crestfallenly.