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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