On Nov 3, 2008, at 3:32 PM, Bret Fausett wrote:
On Nov 3, 2008, at 9:52 AM, Dharma Dailey wrote:
If we can get some clarity on "who is in the room" before we start fighting about what is the "right" meaning of "internet user" is, that would help us move forward.
I've been thinking about this from a different direction, in light of the Verisign/.COM agreement a couple of years ago. You may recall that the comment boards then were flooded with comments, many were duplicates of standard form emails, many were from first time ICANN commenters, spurred on by lobbyists and such, and it made parsing the support for the relative positions difficult. It made me wonder about asking people commenting on the ICANN Boards to register. Registration would ask for basic contact information, like name and address, and also ask people to disclose their financial interests in the outcomes. Registration could be voluntary, and registration, or failure to register, could go to the weight the comments should be given. It's important to know who is in the room, but equally important to know why they are in the room.
I agree with your aim of greater transparency for all ICANN participants. "Who" and "why" are deeply connected questions with many other questions nested within them. In addition to calling out the rest of the ICANN world for better transparency, as NARALO, we have the opportunity to define what best practices are regarding transparency - at least within our own little domain- and to model their use. Doing so may also help us to work more effectively together. To take most advantage of the energy and excitement that builds up heading into a face to face meeting -- such as we will have in Mexico -- I was hoping that others in NARALO may be excited to try to map out these two issues -- "who" and "why." If we can map out what's not contentious -- for example -- it's a fact that large telecoms consider themselves to be "internet users" vis a vis ICANN-- then we will have some clear background for discussing the more contentious material : "What is the best way for us to positively influence ICANN on behalf of internet users?" The more time that we use to discuss framing in Mexico City, the less time we will have to set priorities such as What are the most important issues in front of ICANN which affect net users? and What is the best way to influence those issues on behalf of net users? In my experience, it's very hard to get consensus on such topics in any other way than in person-- and we aren't going to have much time for those discussions when we do get together. Should doing such mapping not be of interest to NARALO as a whole, I suggest that NARALO picks another task as a prelude to the Mexico meeting which will capitalize on people's natural inclination to participate more prior to a face to face meeting. Alternative suggestions are welcome. AIf these topics or means aren't of interest to NARALO as a whole, I am happy to work with anyone else that is interested in trying to map them. For myself, I see this mapping and framing as a critical step in my own understanding of how the users I care about are impacted by ICANN. -Dharma
-- Bret
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