Re: [ga] Roberto Gaetano on ALAC Reform
I don't see why we need to build a third, or fourth, mechanism for the community of internet users to have their deserved and necessary role. We had such a mechanism, or at least a nascent form of it, in year 2000 when we had nearly 200,000 people sign up to vote for regional director's seats. ICANN's "reform" destroyed that and replaced it with the ALAC, a body who's power and role is perhaps best expressed simply by articulating its name - "A Lack" - A lack of concrete linkage between the opinions of individual internet users and the decisions made by ICANN. There is no wonder here in North America why ICANN's ALAC has been ignored: People here comprehend its intentionally crippled structure, a structure intentionally designed to ensure that it remains forever powerless and weak, and that it never represents a threat to the entrenched authority of the IP, registry/registrar, and business components of ICANN. So to my mind ICANN has but one choice: fulfill the promise made during ICANN's formation in which the community of internet users would have a means to vote, as individuals, for a majority of the seats of ICANN's ultimate authority, its Board of Directors. Doing yet another study would merely add pages to an already thick compendium of studies and ICANN's broken promises. I applaud the optimism of you and Vittorio and others who have stuck with the ALAC idea. But it an optimism that I do not share, and which it seems the majority of internet users in North America also do not share. --karl--
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