Dear Carlos I hear you, brother. My focus has not changed since I first joined At-Large in 2006: an Internet open to everyone, connecting each of us to all of us. Whatever tools or structures advance that goal, I will lend my time and brainpower. The At-Large bureaucracy never fitted me comfortably, but you play the hand you’re dealt. Back then, my day job as a senior administrator at the UWI — three Nobel laureates tied to it — aligned with the mission. UWI wanted to reach students and researchers worldwide. The internet was indispensable. ICANN sent a young Canadian, Jacob Malthouse, to my Kingston office to pitch this new At-Large idea. I answered. I held the pen that delivered the first bilingual Rules of Procedure and Operating Principles for the very first Regional At-Large Organization —LACRALO— working with Dev Anand Teelucksingh, Lance Hinds, Niran Beharry, Jacqueline Morris, Nick Ashton-Hart and Andres Piazza from Argentina. The UWI served two terms as Secretariat for LACRALO; as convenor for the UWI ALS, I was the face for LACRALO then. Our aim for LACRALO then was few chiefs, many volunteers climbing over each other to shape ICANN policy. Reality soon cooled that dream. But we can still claim a few well-qualified and able recruits to the At-Large cause. We also pushed ICANN to go multilingual. Jacqueline, Lance, Dev, Nick, and I made the case; Cristina Rodriguez helped seal it inside. That was an easy call, a decision aligned with our principles; English-only operations marginalized our Spanish-speaking neighbours and we fought to fix it. Since then I have avoided elections but stayed busy: two NomCom appointments, penned a few ALAC Advisories, participated in multiple review teams and working groups, including chairing a few. I will keep contributing, if only because the work and the principle still matter. Cheers Carlton ============================== *Carlton A Samuels* *Mobile: 876-818-1799Strategy, Process, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* ============================= On Tue, 16 Sept 2025 at 08:36, Carlos Dionisio Aguirre < carlosaguirre62@hotmail.com> wrote:
Dear Carlton, I fully agree with your comments and opinion, but one of the writers of the LACRALO`s RoP were you. I don´t want charge nothing on your back, but we are a litle bit responsibles, all of us who have worked in the region during the last 20 years. We need to change what and how the participation is, but in my humble opinion can´t take as examples guys who are eternally installed as if nobody other can be do the job. my two cents.
Carlos Dionisio Aguirre
(Internet is the End Users, and not to the individuals customized as an End Users, and working for different interests) ------------------------------ *De:* Carlton Samuels via CPWG <cpwg@icann.org> *Enviado:* lunes, 15 de septiembre de 2025 14:46 *Para:* Bill Jouris <b_jouris@yahoo.com> *Cc:* CPWG <cpwg@icann.org>; Dr. Alejandro Pisanty Baruch <apisan@unam.mx> *Asunto:* [CPWG] Re: Offlist
Ah Bill. I’ve been working inside ICANN’s At-Large community since 2006, and I’ve seen real progress. But the fight is far from over. We’ve gone from being treated like distant cousins no one wanted to invite to dinner to being grudgingly recognized as part of the family. Sure is something. But in my view not enough.
The “Empowered Community” label sounds impressive, yet resistance to full At-Large participation still runs deep. We are continually asked — sometimes openly, sometimes with a polite but oily smile — to prove our worth and justify our existence. When it comes from people who I ordinarily would not notice, it rankles.
The truth is, the heavy lifting has always come from individuals: the people who research issues, shape policy, and speak for everyday Internet users. But the institutionalised At-Large in some places system still privileges the institutional shell — the At-Large Structure (ALS) — over the person. NARALO is quite progressive here, largely for the work of people like Alan and Evan.
Look at LACRALO. To give individuals a voice, we created a byzantine framework for “unaffiliated” members. It’s so convoluted that talented recruits take one look and walk away.
If you believe, as I do, that access to the Internet is a fundamental right and that ordinary users deserve representation wherever that right is debated and contested, you know the struggle continues. We in the Caribbean keep showing up. We keep pushing. And, we still have to fight for our place every single day.
Cheers.
Carlton
============================== *Carlton A Samuels*
*Mobile: 876-818-1799 Strategy, Process, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* =============================
On Fri, 12 Sept 2025 at 00:45, Bill Jouris <b_jouris@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi Carlton,
To say that "It is only recently that participation by an '*unaffiliated*' person was recognized. And with this, that person is still relegated to second class status for rights and privileges in participation." is, at minimum, an over-generalization.
I personally have never been a member of an ALS. Yet if I have been "relegated to second class status" in the decade plus that I have been involved in ICANN, it has somehow escaped my notice.** For me, being elected by the members of NARALO for a term as their representative on the ALAC didn't *feel* like second class status.
Perhaps other Regional Ogranizations are different in this regard. Or perhaps I simply do not understand what is meant by second class status.
Bill Jouris
** I except, of course, the second class status that anyone outside the GNSO has. That would seem to be a different discussion from how At Large works (that being the only place where ALSs are noticed).
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_Andr...>
On Thu, Sep 11, 2025 at 9:38 AM, Carlton Samuels via CPWG <cpwg@icann.org> wrote: _______________________________________________ CPWG mailing list -- cpwg@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to cpwg-leave@icann.org
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