Whatever it is, there needs to be one set of collaboration tools. -Randy Glass A@L On 5/1/07, Denise Michel <denise.michel@icann.org> wrote:
Thank you for your request to have ICANN pay Jean Armour-Polly to maintain the information on www.icannalac.org as a consultant. I have consulted with Nick, looked at the impressive, current on line activity of the At-Large community, and I am in need of more input from you before responding to your request.
ALAC members created www.icannalac.org to help inform and encourage a dialogue among members of ICANN's At-Large community. It was intended to be the independent voice of the ALAC members, giving each of you a place to post views and news directly, without having to go through the clearance process ICANN requires staff/consultants follow when posting material. Further, it was created separate from www.icann.org to experiment with a different layout and on line tools to make the site more interactive.
It seems that the site was used and maintained almost entirely by one member, Jean Armour Polly, during her tenure on the ALAC, and no ALAC members seem to have really used the site much since Jean left the committee in December 2006.
This raises the question of whether an ALAC website separate from www.icann.org needs to be maintained if a consultant will be doing a majority of the posting (material will be cleared by ICANN if Jean is paid by ICANN), and the website is used to post information by staff/consultants rather than for interactive dialogue by ALAC members.
Additionally, much has happened in the At-Large community over the last year that also should be considered along with your request. As you know, since the www.icannalac.org site was launched, the At-Large community has grown significantly, as has its on line presence - much to the credit of the ALAC and At-Large community leaders. Each At-Large region now has its own, independent website, and self-service mailing lists. The ALAC now has its own Wiki, which hosts a lot of information that the community appears to be using - documents, meeting recordings and minutes, etc. These new on line collaboration efforts seem to have taken on many of the functions that www.icannalac.org was meant to provide.
Furthermore, ICANN has revamped its website templates, added more interactive tools, and will be re-examining its approval requirements for web posting.
In light of all this, it would useful to get more input from you to help us evaluate your request for a consultant for www.icannalac.org. Here are some questions that would be helpful to hear from you on:
1) If the site can no longer be said to be independent (if ICANN is paying a consultant to post information and maintain it), is there any reason for the site to be maintained separate from the ALAC wiki, or an improved www.alac.icann.org? If yes, why?
2) In the past year, as previously noted, only one member of the ALAC really provided much content to the www.icannalac.org site. Do you have a new plan to ensure that – if the site continues to be supported by ICANN and a consultant – that the site will not continue to be updated by one person?
3) The www.alac.icann.org site is about to go through a major restructuring to provide up-to-date information, as requested by the community. If it were to incorporate facilities like blogs for ALAC members and others, and forums which allowed two-way integration to the mailing lists, providing that these would not be subject to ICANN clearance procedures, would this provide the independence and utility that the www.icannalac.org site was intended to provide? Are there any other such tools that would be needed by the ALAC?
4) As you know, there is more activity on the At-Large regional sites, the ALAC wiki, and the mailing lists than there is on www.icannalac.org. Do you have a plan to ensure that the www.icannalac.org site becomes more active and attracts more users? Are there parts of the site, such as the forums, which have been replaced by other methods of communication? If so, which ones?
5) What unique role in communications to the community does the www.icannalac.org site have, taking into account the other At-Large collaboration tools?
I greatly appreciate your help in providing more clarity on whether additional financial support for www.icannalac.org is warranted, or whether the same objectives could be more readily achieved in other ways. Please email your input to staff@alac.icann.org and Nick and I will get back to you soon on this.
Regards, Denise
Denise Michel Vice President, Policy Development ICANN www.icann.org denise.michel@icann.org
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