Hi all, Here is the background document that Danny was kind enough to provide to us to go along with the Consumer's Watch statement that I forwarded earlier. If you wish more info, this is a great place to start... ----------------------------------- Colleagues: After a brief discussion with Cheryl, I am sending the draft comments WebWatch (and Consumers Union as a whole) plans to make on the JPA. I will send along Danny Younger's comments momentarily. While I realize that not everyone on the ALAC will share my views and Danny's, I hope you were as concerned as I was that during Paul Twomey's and Peter Dengate-Thrush's preamble to the public comment period on the JPA, there was not a single mention of ALAC and the user community. This is the second speech I have heard by Paul Twomey that seems to characterize "multi-stakeholder" to mean: industry, government and industry associations. Nonsense! Further, I don't believe it's in the ICANN's best interest to be lobbying the ICANN community, via e-mail and other means, to send in a pre-formatted letter to the NTIA saying that it's ready to spread its wings and fly. I will refine the following statement somewhat, but the gist of what we are going to say during the public comment period here, and then to the NTIA, is this: Though Consumers Union, representing 9 million consumers in the United States and Canada, supports the ICANN's eventual emancipation from U.S. Commerce Department oversight, we do not believe the organization is yet ready to function without a similar accountability mechanism in place. Our justifications are simple and logical: First, we do not believe the current structure of ICANN sufficiently takes into account the needs and opinions of end-users. Based on a half-year's experience as an ALS and a member of the at-large advisory committee itself, Consumers Union believes the at-large community needs at minimum a single voting seat on the ICANN board, at best two seats. Second, ICANN must immediately dedicate a significant budget to outreach and external communications (beyond the allocations to at-large, administered by ICANN staff with the ALAC's input) in order to efficiently engage the user community. To further explain: Currently, the NA-RALO is made up of a scant handful of organizations. In no way could the NA-RALO be characterized as a viable representation of a broad-based user community. Further, many consumer organizations in the United States, with an interest in civil society and technology matters, are skeptical of ICANN's intentions and its viability as an organization that takes consumer views into account. Until something is done to bridge this gap, and ICANN demonstrates otherwise to organizations such as the Center for Democracy and Technology, the EFF and others, and puts in place a sufficient governance mechansism for integrating that voice, ICANN cannot be considered to be acting in accordance with U.S. consumer and user concerns at hand. There are no guarantees beyond mention in the bylaws that the "at-large community," itself currently under review, would remain a part of the ICANN structure 20 or even 10 years from now. Without representation on the ICANN board from the user community, we do not believe ICANN is truly acting as a "multi-stakeholder" organization. Until this issue is addressed we do not believe the organization is ready to be freed from oversight. -----Original Message----- From: alac-internal-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org on behalf of Nick Ashton-Hart Sent: Mon 2/11/2008 6:32 AM To: carlos aguirre Cc: ALAC internal list Subject: Re: [ALAC-Internal] Meeting with NCUC I can confirm that the Agra Room is available at that time. Due to the notice, unfortunately interpretation and recording of the meeting will not be available - I trust that this is OK. May I ask Members to remember to let me ensure that meeting space is available before confirming meetings in meeting rooms please? On 11 Feb 2008, at 16:14, carlos aguirre wrote:

Sorry: the meeting with NCUC is already arranged. Carlos Dionisio Aguirre

abogado - Sarmiento 71 - 4to. 18 Cordoba - Argentina - *54-351-424-2123 / 423-5423 www.sitioderecho.com.ar www.densi.com.ar

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Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:53:24 +0000 From: evan@telly.org To: carlosaguirre62@hotmail.com CC: iza@anr.org; alac-internal@atlarge-lists.icann.org Subject: Re: [ALAC-Internal] Meeting with NCUC and GAC

carlos aguirre wrote:

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Evan : go ahead !!!!

I found, when doing this, that the event conflicts with the GAC/ Board meeting scheduled for 16:45.

http://del.icann.org/node/78

How does this affect the plan?

- Evan

Ingresá ya a MSN en Concierto y disfrutá los recitales en vivo de tus artistas favoritos. MSN en Concierto _______________________________________________ ALAC-Internal mailing list ALAC-Internal@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac-internal_atlarge-lists....

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