Re: [ga] A Call for Resignations

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree with both Danny and Karl: resignations are subsidiary to the fundamental "no confidence" in the ALAC.

The At Large is the worldwide community of Internet Users who wish to participate in the policy and decision making that will determine the future characteristics of the Net and its DNS functions.

ALAC was simply imposed as part of the process that expelled the elected and representative At Large directors like Karl and put in their place people chosen by ICANN to sit on a powerless committee from which individuals are excluded. People didn't ask for ALAC instead of the obviously more participatory At Large directors (and engaged community of thousands that accompanied them). People didn't want ALAC. People didn't vote for the members of the ALAC to "represent" them.

Therefore the notion of resignation is not so much to do with negatives about people as to do with negatives about the whole process. It is the process which demands a "No Confidence" call.

In contrast, individual Internet users continue to seek real representation and real participation and can offer real support. Outside the empty conclave and facade that is ALAC there are thousands of people who want to engage in informed and intelligent dialogue, but who believe - correctly - that ICANN needs to review its expulsion of the At Large directors and re-instate a process whereby individual users can vote individually for people *THEY* choose to represent them on the ICANN Board.

Nothing could be worse than the hollow structure of ALAC, and its graveyard of silent forums, and its failure to engage with the constituency that *they* claimed they represented.

ALAC was a top-down invention of the ICANN Board, created for damage limitation purposes, and imposed on a constituency that didn't want it.

The fact that this constituency of individual Internet users is the greatest constituency of all - the constituency of mothers and teachers and farmers and doctors and social workers and nurses and grandmothers and students and bankers and labourers and family and friends and Africans and Asians and Russians and Americans and everyone else in the world who commits to this shared world resource - and the fact that this constituency is not represented on the ICANN Board and is "locked out" and "expelled" from this Board... is a travesty.

ICANN cannot say to ITU or the UN or WSIS: "We have a worldwide mandate from the Internet Users of the world" when it refuses to allow these users to have a right of self-organisation and self-determination within the ICANN processes.

ICANN cannot rebut those who challenge the mandate of a Californian quango accountable only to the Department of Commerce of a single country, unless it can gain the mandate and credibility that the worldwide community of Internet users can offer them, which would then allow ICANN to rebut the politicians and inter-governmental interlopers who at present may claim access to DNS policy on grounds of their own representative credentials.

ALAC is a failed project without credibility.

ICANN too lacks credibility on the world stage.

The community of Internet users worldwide have to be brought into the management of their own worldwide resource. They should no longer be excluded.

Whether or not anyone resigns is only supplementary to the annulment of the ALAC project as a whole.

The bottom line is: these ALAC placemen were selected by ICANN. Individual users never voted for them.

Karl, in contrast, was chosen by peers as their representative. It was this involvement which made people want to participate.

Never mind individual members resigning! Resign the whole structure! Stop marginalising us!

Yrs,

Richard Henderson

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Danny Younger 
  To: Karl Auerbach 
  Cc: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 9:32 PM
  Subject: Re: [ga] A Call for Resignations


  Karl,

  Your point is well-taken.  On the other hand, as we did not vote in these appointees, we can't really vote them out... all that we can do is indicate our strong displeasure and ask them to consider stepping aside for the greater good.  I would be satisfied to some degree if this initiative at least resulted in some dialogue between the parties and a renewed ICANN-wide discussion on the future of representation for the At-Large within ICANN.  So far, no reply has been forthcoming from the fifteen members of the ALAC either individually or by way of a spokesperson... 

  regards,
  Danny




  Karl Auerbach <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

    Rather than calling for resignations, which casts a negative light on some 
    people who deserve credit for giving the A-LACK a try, would it not be 
    better to simply indicate a vote of no-confidence in the A-LACK coupled 
    with a demand for a replacement that restores the original and unfulfilled 
    ICANN promise of a board of directors elected largely by the community of 
    internet users?

    --karl--





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