Re: [ga] Letter to the ALAC

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Not only did ICANN ignore the ALSC recommendation that one third of the ICANN Board should be made up of At-Large representatives, they then went further and expelled those members of the At Large who had already been elected to the ICANN Board.

It was a coup.

Since ALAC was the face-saving device created by ICANN to 'cover up' the expulsion of the At Large from the Board Room, it is either idealistic or deliberately ironic that you are appealing to ALAC to represent the interests of individual users at this time.

Only this week ALAC has been moving to make membership of their "closed shop" even harder, insisting that any new members must physically attend fifteen (15) days of ICANN meetings all round the world, while continuing to bar any individual internet users from membership of their individual users' constituency on the grounds that they are individual users.

I have tonight contacted other agencies around the world who might be more willing to promote and support a genuine Individual Users movement, since ICANN has demonstrated that it has no agenda to let Individual Users back in to their California-based quango.

The interests of hundreds of millions of ordinary Internet Users cannot be sidelined, marginalised and locked out forever. The people who actually use the net and the DNS, contribute to it, communicate through it, and develop it, have a right to an active participation in decisions about the future direction of a resource which, frankly, belongs to the whole world and not just the Department of Commerce of a single nation.

ALAC does not offer that "active participation" because ALAC locks out these millions of individuals who could create a wonderful and vibrant community. It is therefore only logical to consider an alternative to ALAC (and, in all likelihood, an ultimate alternative to ICANN). The User Constituency which emerges will offer credibility to agencies or organisations that have the vision and intelligence to embrace it. The support of Internet Users is, ultimately, like a mandate that may be used by other agencies to show that they act on behalf of the worldwide community of users, and not just a self-perpetuating clique at Marina del Rey.

The convergence of Internet Users worldwide with an governance accountable to a body or agency beyond California may well persuade the Press and several Western governments that it would be better to move on from ICANN altogether.

Yrs,

Richard Henderson
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Danny Younger 
  To: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Cc: committee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 8:22 PM
  Subject: [ga] Letter to the ALAC


  Dear members of the Interim At-Large Advisory Committee,

  ... [snip snip]...

  As you are representatives of the At-Large interest, we presume that have have no qualms about seeking to implement the consensus-driven recommendation of your peers to place elected at-large representatives on one third of the ICANN Board (especially at a time when the state of ICANN finances are no longer the issue that they once were).

  We look forward to your participation on the General Assembly discussion list, and know that you understand that all efforts to continue promoting "participation without representation" are categorically rejected by the at-large community.

  Best regards,
  Danny Younger
  dannyyounger[at]yahoo.com
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