[ma.darche@free.fr: Benefits and goals of At-Large involvement]

[M.-A. DARCHE]

Forum Question:
> What are the benefits and goals of At-Large involvement?

Benefits:

 - Wide acceptance of ICANN.
   ICANN legitimacy and credibility.
   Internet users, IT specialists and IT companies could see the ICANN
   as a true representative body, which is hardly the case now.
   
 - Stopping the "Domain Name Registration Scams" that will/begins to
   hurt the Internet.

Goals by importance:

 - Empowering all the Internet users who care.
   
 - Obtaining worldwide Internet consensus among the At-Large community.


> What would you, personally, like to gain from being involved in ICANN?

- Making sure the Internet isn't been taken over by 
  corporate or state interests.

- Making sure that the Free (Libre) Software community has its say
  in any decision process.

With the following precisions :

- I would like to be personally and directly able to elect 
  Board members.
  I'm resolutely standing against any indirect voting or 
  "intervening representative body".
  
- I would like to personally and directly being able to remove an
  elected Board member, a very serious action which needs to be
  discussed furthermore.


> In envisioning an At-Large membership, what do you see as its greatest
> potential contributions to ICANN?

Legitimacy of course, as already mentioned.
Without legitimacy ICANN should never be fully accepted and other solutions 
will be used by other groups/organizations.

Another great contribution is bringing the energy and reactivity of all
Internet users and the IT specialists that are making the At-Large
membership.
Without the At-Large membership, ICANN could loose pace with 
new Internet social aspects and new Internet technologies.


> What are the negatives of having an At-Large Membership?

Decision making might be harder and will take longer.
And a difficult point is/will be to have an At-Large Membership
representative of the Internet users.


Yours sincerely,

-- 
Marc-Aurčle DARCHE  <http://ma.darche.free.fr>
AFUL <http://www.aful.org>
Association Francophone des Utilisateurs de Linux/Logiciels Libres
French speaking Linux and Free Software Users' Association