Question from Glenn McKnight to candidates: Will you be volunteering at the Toronto Event activities to support such things as the Capacity Building Sessions, NARALO Tableto and the Wine and Cheese?
I will be at the Cacacity Building Sessions, and participate to the ability that I am able.
Regarding other NARALO activities... I will be try to come and do table duty. But as I have been frequently involved at ICANN meetings in impromptu statement-writing and collaborative activities that may be done with as little as an hour's warning, it would be unfair of me to offer a hard schedule that I could not commit to hold to.
Question from Darlene Thompson to candidates: Each one of you has had a specific focus and/or expertise in your prior NARALO participation. How will you ensure that, should you become elected, you will provide well-rounded leadership in a wide variety of issues that you may not have been involved in previously?
I think the role of Chair is to foster construction dialogue which of course would require some meaningful knowledge of the various issues that concern the At Large. I would hope that the specialized knowledge that I lack (which is considerable) would be provided by the other NARALO members and participants, and that it would be my facilitation skills that would function to advance the group's objectives and allow NARALO to make meaningful contributions to the work of the ALAC and ICANN.
Collegiality. The set of individuals who compose the ALAC changes over time, and many bring with them years of prior work in technical and policy areas, and with that experience, subject matter expertise.
The service of each is voluntary, uncompensated, without material interest and therefore, conflicts of interest.
Absent regard for others as colleges and the commitments of each to contribute to network policy through the advice process during their limited tenures, there is no means to provide the advise to the corporation board for which the ALAC was created.
In issues in which I lack the involvement, expertise or depth I would like (ie, IDNs, privacy, security), I have come to rely upon my colleagues in NARALO and elsewhere in ICANN, for no one person -- especially a part-time volunteer -- can be "up" on everything. As a result, at one time of another have depended on the skills and contributions of almost every NARALO member; even on occasions when I have disagreed with them I have respected and incorporated their input. In areas in which I do not possess the required expertise (or passion) to advance an issue I do my best to facilitate an appropriate path for those who do.
The best leadership I think can best be offered by At-Large elected officials is by example. We can demonstrate that a combination of skill, logic, effective communications and occasional diplomacy, much can be accomplished. The NARALO stress on consensus building has been effective in allowing anyone's effort and talent to show. At-Large leaders can help our colleagues to get involved, assert their viewpoints, and work with them to escalate what matters. A broader base of involved people helps us better address the maze of issues within ICANN - our challenge is continuing to discover and energize the diversity of talent amongst us. I believe I have been moderately effective in this regard but there is always room for improvement.
I came into At-Large representing a community of users with serious concerns about Internet abuse and security. However, since joining I have had the pleasure of meeting so many motivated people with different viewpoints. I can honestly say I've become enlightened and encouraged because of this experience. While a variety of issues brought us all to the same table I think we are facing the same core problem: ICANN is not fulfilling its mission. By supporting individual efforts cooperatively, we can all achieve a better structure. I am quite anxious to take on the concerns of NARALO and get results. I want to find the smallest voices in the crowd and make sure they are get heard by the organization.
Question from Darlene Thompson to candidates: Please describe all NARALO activities (policy development, working groups, outreach, general information sharing, etc.) that you have been involved in within the last year (prior to our up-coming election date of Aug. 12).
I have been knee deep at a high level in trying to get ALAC from reactive to proactive, as evidenced by my initiative which has since evolved and transformed into the Future Challanges Working Group and its first product, the "R3" white paper which is being prepared for ALAC ratification after months of refinement and community input. I have a readily apparent history of activity in policy work on new gTLDs, registrant rights, and have (I believe) played a part in improving the working relationship between ALAC and the Governmental Advisory Committee. I hope I have played a role in elevating Garth's research on ICANN's lack of contractual compliance into an issue of global At-Large high-priority significance.
On the gTLD expansion, I am on the record as not believing it was a good idea as it was done; but the flood doors have opened. At-Large's role -- and one I have played an active part in so far -- is to ensure that damage to end-users is minimized, and that the commitment to diversity and innovation is retained so that the expansion does not just result in just a bunch of small would-be dot-coms. I have been active on issues such as Applicant Support and pushing back on the RedCross/IOC reserved-name initiative, and have continued to be involved in relevant matters going forward.
As many NARALO members know I have long championed greater outreach by ALAC into parts of the population yet-unaware of ICANN's existence, let alone relevance. I continue to support and promote the NA region's unique use of personal empowerment and consensus-driven decision making, which has served it well in both policy and process. In fact, I have been asked to advise other regions in methods by which they may empower individual members.
On ICANN-wide process issues my focus has been insisting on greater ICANN openness and inclusiveness. I personally believe that ICANN is under significant threat to its very existence, and to a significant extent brought this threat upon itself. Without a clear path to instill public and government confidence in both its high-level processes and policies, ICANN may not last long enough to see through the current gTLD expansion much less consider future rounds. The installation of a new CEO offers hope, but this has been offset by a Board attitude to transparency that is visibly regressing. I have been vigilant in this issue and commit to maintaining and indeed increasing that vigilance.
Policy development and working groups: As explained in my SOI, I have been an ALAC appointed representative to (1) the Whois Review Team, whose work was completed in May of this year; and (2) the At-Large new gtLD Review Group, whose work is ongoing. These are not NARALO activities per se but were done as a member of the At Large community.
Outreach: I speak about intellectual property and Internet law topics to local audiences here in Hawaii several times a year and when the opportunity arises, I include ICANN related topics in those talks. I am occasionally contacted by professionals in my community for information about domain names and the work of ICANN and respond with information that hold as a result of my NARALO and ICANN participation. I report to my ALS, admittedly infrequently, on the ICANN activities I have been involved with. I had a student intern that I attempted to get interested in assisting me with NARALO activities but, unfortunately, she opted for something that was more likely to help her find employment upon graduation. I let Glenn film me in Costa Rica ()and I heard that the video was published.
My ALS, KnujOn, represents thousands of ordinary Internet users from around the world. We take their gut-level complaints and help them navigate the bureaucracy for free. We process vast amounts of data, analyze it and determine where the infrastructure is failing. Then we work within the system (as much as "the system" cooperates) to find a solution.This has included regular participation in NARALO calls, attendance at ICANN meetings when possible, and contributions to NARALO/ALAC efforts.
I saw my early involvement in NARALO/At-Large as an opportunity to listen. At the first few meetings I sat in the back and watched others. Conveniently, my first meeting was the Mexico City At-Large summit where I had the opportunity to see many members engaged in great work. I have been impressed ever-since.
I regularly publish our findings to our members, NARALO and to the general public at sites like circleID.com where I tirelessly respond to detractors who want the user community to shut up and go away. Lengthy reports published by me have gotten ICANN to "take notice" and sometimes even fix something. I have been very focused on compliance, but I look forward to applying these methods in any area which the community sees failure. Our motto should be if ICANN wont do it, we will.
ICANN has been under the radar for a long time but times are changing. This question is open to all nominees. How do you see NARALO organizing itself as a seminal and informed body impacting public perception of ICANN. What strategies do you think NARALO should adopt to meet the challenge.
The organization of NARALO provides the portential to be as influential as its members want it to be. As a region we have been a significant catalyst of many of ALAC's policy initiatives, notably on registrant rights, contractual compliance, and conflict of interest. And going forward I am hoping for more if the same combination of insight and energy.
As in any volunteer group, we're as good as our participants. The elected representatives shoulder a significant load and depend upon the region as a whole to help drive agendas and establish priorities.
I'm not sure that much structural change is required. Within At-Large, NARALO pioneered the processes of empowering individual members and consensus-based decision making, and I believe these still serve as an example to be matched elsewhere. As for strategy, my preference is to choose a small number of critical priority issues and to concentrate our limited resources on those. At-Large is not bound by the ICANN Public Comment Process, and we need to stop being a slave to the PCP's deadlines and agendas. We have the ability to help set ICANN's agenda rather than just keep reacting to the priorities of others, and as NA's ALAC rep I commit to continue our moving in this direction.
Since joining NARALO shortly before the 2007 Puerto Rico meeting, it has been my perception - perhaps incomplete - that ALAC has made considerable strides in gaining visibility, credibility and authority within ICANN and has made some very meaningful contributions to the work of ICANN. Meanwhile, the various RALOs have exhibited both strength and weaknesses within a given RALO having periods during which its members worked well together and other times when they perhaps did not. Communications between RALOs seem to be generally positive. Communications within RALOs sometimes not.
As RALO members, we likely hold a responsibility to work as constructively and cohesively as possible so that our RALO is in the best position to assist the other RALOS and ALAC to continue on its course of making meaningful contributions and gaining further credibility and respect. We may have a dual obligation of (1) addressing the needs of Jim and Jane Internet User - particularly those that do not have our understanding of and skills related to the Internet, and (2) bolstering the continued viability of ICANN. As ICANN is the organization that we have chosen to help make domain name policy, so we may have the obligation to help it survive challenges to its continued existence and sovereignty.
Finally getting to Glenn's question, how do we as NARALO members work as constructively and cohesively as possible to further the goals of ALAC and ICANN? Not sure. Maybe through additional internal structures. Maybe through better or more efficient commutation tools. Maybe through proactively reaching out to our members to assist with given tasks in order to get wider participation so that the active few are not spread so thin and the silent majority become more active without being stretched.
The first thing I would like to do, regardless of being elected or not, is to increase our membership and outreach. NARALO, in collaboration with members of other RALOs, has actually been incredibly effective at getting specific portions of ICANN to fix issues and pay attention. Our intense public sessions have put spotlights on some very ugly issues ICANN tries to sweep under the rug.
If more Internet users could see and understand what we are doing they would want to be involved. We should use the individual NARALO At-Large membership to truly engage the vast user community as well as tap into our various networks to get more ALSes on the list.
It should be the group goal to enlist a certain number of new ALSes each year and map out what under-represented communities should be targeted membership.
We have the potential to become a great and positive force within the community.
Thus far, dating back to the Membership Implementation Task Force work that began the "at large" as an eventual by-laws entity, many "strategies" have been tried, briefly. The unfortunate fact that "NARALO" is, and has been for quite some time, a very small set of people, suggests there is no magic bullet, no pixie dust, that will make much of a difference.
Institution wide, a "marketing collateral" that is conspicuous by its absence is a journal of record. There are journals that do have frequent articles on network policy, mostly law & technology journals, and the journals that carry the "Gee Whiz" stories for non-policy readers, but little else. Ole Jacobsen's monthly, originally a marketing collateral of Dan Lynch's InterOp, and later cisco's – stands out as a long-term publication of topical, and analytic articles, and its "dead tree" media makes it more tangible than the ephemera of web pages, and more easily shared – or differently shared – than write-and-forget web pages.
A change, an experiment, that can tried, is to stop allocating travel support to public meetings out of the region on administrative roles – the secretary and region chair – and allocate travel support to the policy advocates that are leading on key issues of each public meeting. We've tried sending the same people to "fine dining in exotic locations" (paraphrasing Marshall Rose) three times a year for several years and we know what that's accomplished. We don't know what asking the best policy advocates available to us to advocate in the public interest – year after year – can accomplish.
I suspect that policy accomplishments will do more for improving NARALO than re-trying anything we've previously tried, and currently most of our ICANN allocated resources are allocated to administrative roles and their institutional communication with other RALOs also struggling to find a successful means to communicate externally and thrive as ongoing organizations. Perhaps when a public meeting is held in North America then the administrative roles could be allocated travel support for the purpose of providing a bi-annual report to the other RALO attendees and the interested participants in the other By Laws Entities, e.g., the GAC, the GNSO, ...
19 Comments
Anonymous
Question from Glenn McKnight to candidates: Will you be volunteering at the Toronto Event activities to support such things as the Capacity Building Sessions, NARALO Tableto and the Wine and Cheese?
Evan Leibovitch
I will be at the Cacacity Building Sessions, and participate to the ability that I am able.
Regarding other NARALO activities... I will be try to come and do table duty. But as I have been frequently involved at ICANN meetings in impromptu statement-writing and collaborative activities that may be done with as little as an hour's warning, it would be unfair of me to offer a hard schedule that I could not commit to hold to.
Seth Reiss
I would be happy to fill in where there is need and plan to.
Garth Bruen
Of course! I'm chairing the event committee. Want to pitch in as much as possible.
Eric Brunner-Williams
Of course.
Anonymous
Question from Darlene Thompson to candidates: Each one of you has had a specific focus and/or expertise in your prior NARALO participation. How will you ensure that, should you become elected, you will provide well-rounded leadership in a wide variety of issues that you may not have been involved in previously?
Anonymous
Answer from Seth Reiss:
I think the role of Chair is to foster construction dialogue which of course would require some meaningful knowledge of the various issues that concern the At Large. I would hope that the specialized knowledge that I lack (which is considerable) would be provided by the other NARALO members and participants, and that it would be my facilitation skills that would function to advance the group's objectives and allow NARALO to make meaningful contributions to the work of the ALAC and ICANN.
Anonymous
Answer from Eric Brunner-Williams:
Collegiality. The set of individuals who compose the ALAC changes over time, and many bring with them years of prior work in technical and policy areas, and with that experience, subject matter expertise.
The service of each is voluntary, uncompensated, without material interest and therefore, conflicts of interest.
Absent regard for others as colleges and the commitments of each to contribute to network policy through the advice process during their limited tenures, there is no means to provide the advise to the corporation board for which the ALAC was created.
Evan Leibovitch
In issues in which I lack the involvement, expertise or depth I would like (ie, IDNs, privacy, security), I have come to rely upon my colleagues in NARALO and elsewhere in ICANN, for no one person -- especially a part-time volunteer -- can be "up" on everything. As a result, at one time of another have depended on the skills and contributions of almost every NARALO member; even on occasions when I have disagreed with them I have respected and incorporated their input. In areas in which I do not possess the required expertise (or passion) to advance an issue I do my best to facilitate an appropriate path for those who do.
The best leadership I think can best be offered by At-Large elected officials is by example. We can demonstrate that a combination of skill, logic, effective communications and occasional diplomacy, much can be accomplished. The NARALO stress on consensus building has been effective in allowing anyone's effort and talent to show. At-Large leaders can help our colleagues to get involved, assert their viewpoints, and work with them to escalate what matters. A broader base of involved people helps us better address the maze of issues within ICANN - our challenge is continuing to discover and energize the diversity of talent amongst us. I believe I have been moderately effective in this regard but there is always room for improvement.
Garth Bruen
I came into At-Large representing a community of users with serious concerns about Internet abuse and security. However, since joining I have had the pleasure of meeting so many motivated people with different viewpoints. I can honestly say I've become enlightened and encouraged because of this experience. While a variety of issues brought us all to the same table I think we are facing the same core problem: ICANN is not fulfilling its mission. By supporting individual efforts cooperatively, we can all achieve a better structure. I am quite anxious to take on the concerns of NARALO and get results. I want to find the smallest voices in the crowd and make sure they are get heard by the organization.
Anonymous
Question from Darlene Thompson to candidates: Please describe all NARALO activities (policy development, working groups, outreach, general information sharing, etc.) that you have been involved in within the last year (prior to our up-coming election date of Aug. 12).
Evan Leibovitch
Seth Reiss
Policy development and working groups: As explained in my SOI, I have been an ALAC appointed representative to (1) the Whois Review Team, whose work was completed in May of this year; and (2) the At-Large new gtLD Review Group, whose work is ongoing. These are not NARALO activities per se but were done as a member of the At Large community.
Outreach: I speak about intellectual property and Internet law topics to local audiences here in Hawaii several times a year and when the opportunity arises, I include ICANN related topics in those talks. I am occasionally contacted by professionals in my community for information about domain names and the work of ICANN and respond with information that hold as a result of my NARALO and ICANN participation. I report to my ALS, admittedly infrequently, on the ICANN activities I have been involved with. I had a student intern that I attempted to get interested in assisting me with NARALO activities but, unfortunately, she opted for something that was more likely to help her find employment upon graduation. I let Glenn film me in Costa Rica (
)and I heard that the video was published.
Garth Bruen
My ALS, KnujOn, represents thousands of ordinary Internet users from around the world. We take their gut-level complaints and help them navigate the bureaucracy for free. We process vast amounts of data, analyze it and determine where the infrastructure is failing. Then we work within the system (as much as "the system" cooperates) to find a solution.This has included regular participation in NARALO calls, attendance at ICANN meetings when possible, and contributions to NARALO/ALAC efforts.
I saw my early involvement in NARALO/At-Large as an opportunity to listen. At the first few meetings I sat in the back and watched others. Conveniently, my first meeting was the Mexico City At-Large summit where I had the opportunity to see many members engaged in great work. I have been impressed ever-since.
I regularly publish our findings to our members, NARALO and to the general public at sites like circleID.com where I tirelessly respond to detractors who want the user community to shut up and go away. Lengthy reports published by me have gotten ICANN to "take notice" and sometimes even fix something. I have been very focused on compliance, but I look forward to applying these methods in any area which the community sees failure. Our motto should be if ICANN wont do it, we will.
Glenn McKnight
ICANN has been under the radar for a long time but times are changing. This question is open to all nominees. How do you see NARALO organizing itself as a seminal and informed body impacting public perception of ICANN. What strategies do you think NARALO should adopt to meet the challenge.
Thank You
Evan Leibovitch
Thanks for the question.
The organization of NARALO provides the portential to be as influential as its members want it to be. As a region we have been a significant catalyst of many of ALAC's policy initiatives, notably on registrant rights, contractual compliance, and conflict of interest. And going forward I am hoping for more if the same combination of insight and energy.
As in any volunteer group, we're as good as our participants. The elected representatives shoulder a significant load and depend upon the region as a whole to help drive agendas and establish priorities.
I'm not sure that much structural change is required. Within At-Large, NARALO pioneered the processes of empowering individual members and consensus-based decision making, and I believe these still serve as an example to be matched elsewhere. As for strategy, my preference is to choose a small number of critical priority issues and to concentrate our limited resources on those. At-Large is not bound by the ICANN Public Comment Process, and we need to stop being a slave to the PCP's deadlines and agendas. We have the ability to help set ICANN's agenda rather than just keep reacting to the priorities of others, and as NA's ALAC rep I commit to continue our moving in this direction.
Seth Reiss
Since joining NARALO shortly before the 2007 Puerto Rico meeting, it has been my perception - perhaps incomplete - that ALAC has made considerable strides in gaining visibility, credibility and authority within ICANN and has made some very meaningful contributions to the work of ICANN. Meanwhile, the various RALOs have exhibited both strength and weaknesses within a given RALO having periods during which its members worked well together and other times when they perhaps did not. Communications between RALOs seem to be generally positive. Communications within RALOs sometimes not.
As RALO members, we likely hold a responsibility to work as constructively and cohesively as possible so that our RALO is in the best position to assist the other RALOS and ALAC to continue on its course of making meaningful contributions and gaining further credibility and respect. We may have a dual obligation of (1) addressing the needs of Jim and Jane Internet User - particularly those that do not have our understanding of and skills related to the Internet, and (2) bolstering the continued viability of ICANN. As ICANN is the organization that we have chosen to help make domain name policy, so we may have the obligation to help it survive challenges to its continued existence and sovereignty.
Finally getting to Glenn's question, how do we as NARALO members work as constructively and cohesively as possible to further the goals of ALAC and ICANN? Not sure. Maybe through additional internal structures. Maybe through better or more efficient commutation tools. Maybe through proactively reaching out to our members to assist with given tasks in order to get wider participation so that the active few are not spread so thin and the silent majority become more active without being stretched.
Garth Bruen
The first thing I would like to do, regardless of being elected or not, is to increase our membership and outreach. NARALO, in collaboration with members of other RALOs, has actually been incredibly effective at getting specific portions of ICANN to fix issues and pay attention. Our intense public sessions have put spotlights on some very ugly issues ICANN tries to sweep under the rug.
If more Internet users could see and understand what we are doing they would want to be involved. We should use the individual NARALO At-Large membership to truly engage the vast user community as well as tap into our various networks to get more ALSes on the list.
It should be the group goal to enlist a certain number of new ALSes each year and map out what under-represented communities should be targeted membership.
We have the potential to become a great and positive force within the community.
Eric Brunner-Williams
Thus far, dating back to the Membership Implementation Task Force work that began the "at large" as an eventual by-laws entity, many "strategies" have been tried, briefly. The unfortunate fact that "NARALO" is, and has been for quite some time, a very small set of people, suggests there is no magic bullet, no pixie dust, that will make much of a difference.
Institution wide, a "marketing collateral" that is conspicuous by its absence is a journal of record. There are journals that do have frequent articles on network policy, mostly law & technology journals, and the journals that carry the "Gee Whiz" stories for non-policy readers, but little else. Ole Jacobsen's monthly, originally a marketing collateral of Dan Lynch's InterOp, and later cisco's – stands out as a long-term publication of topical, and analytic articles, and its "dead tree" media makes it more tangible than the ephemera of web pages, and more easily shared – or differently shared – than write-and-forget web pages.
A change, an experiment, that can tried, is to stop allocating travel support to public meetings out of the region on administrative roles – the secretary and region chair – and allocate travel support to the policy advocates that are leading on key issues of each public meeting. We've tried sending the same people to "fine dining in exotic locations" (paraphrasing Marshall Rose) three times a year for several years and we know what that's accomplished. We don't know what asking the best policy advocates available to us to advocate in the public interest – year after year – can accomplish.
I suspect that policy accomplishments will do more for improving NARALO than re-trying anything we've previously tried, and currently most of our ICANN allocated resources are allocated to administrative roles and their institutional communication with other RALOs also struggling to find a successful means to communicate externally and thrive as ongoing organizations. Perhaps when a public meeting is held in North America then the administrative roles could be allocated travel support for the purpose of providing a bi-annual report to the other RALO attendees and the interested participants in the other By Laws Entities, e.g., the GAC, the GNSO, ...
Thanks for the question.