Hi Evan, 

I think you are using the link to the ICANN commissioned study with the link ... https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/3204233 for your references.

I was referring to the Research Article titled "Hegemonic practices in multistakeholder Internet governance: Participatory evangelism, quiet politics, and glorification of status quo at ICANN meetings" found with the link ... https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01972243.2023.2194295

In addition to not including At-Large, the Research Article actually makes the following claim under the "Research Questions" section ... "The Noncommercial Stakeholder Group function to promote the interests of users and the public. It is the weaker, less-resourced, and marginalized stakeholder group (Calandro and Zingales Citation2013; Gross Citation2011; Mueller Citation2009)."

The Research Article may be conflating At-Large with NCSG (GNSO), but it doesn't take away from the higher level observations in my mind. 

... and yes, I agree with your point about At-Large's path to legitimacy.  

On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 12:37 PM Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> wrote:
On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 10:31 AM David Mackey via CPWG <cpwg@icann.org> wrote:
 
It may be noted that ALAC is only referenced once in the article content, and then only as a definition. Even the definition of ALAC has a spelling error ... "Ad-Large Advisory Committee".

Incorrect.

Under section 4 we have:

"an absence of awareness of ICANN among the public at large leaves the regime with a narrow base of legitimacy. True, the world’s 4.7 billion regular internet users (as of 2020) obtain notional representation in the ICANN multistakeholder framework through the At-Large Constituency. However, participants in At-Large are self-selected and have few systematic communications with the wider public."

Plus, the 2017 At-Large Review is cited in the bibliography.
So, the authors are aware of ALAC and At-Large but dismiss its significance in ICANN's governance.
Sounds accurate to me.

As I have said repeatedly... concentrating all efforts on user-focused public education and selective advocacy based on research of public needs is ALAC's best (and I would argue only) path to legitimacy.

- Evan