[ALSC-Forum] Another Membership Study - Berkman Center Representation in Cyberspace Study (and MAC)

[Ben Edelman]

I noticed the page <http://www.atlargestudy.org/studies_list.shtml> on the
ALSC's web site.  Omitted from that page is the Berkman Center's
Representation in Cyberspace Study ("RCS") which we conducted at ICANN's
request in the spring of 1999, with participation by multiple ICANN Board
Members, election experts, etc.

See <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rcs/>, including full archives of our
public meeting, interim documents and draft recommendations, and ultimately
our final recommendation to ICANN.

(The document also explicitly discusses the MAC's sense of an appropriate
way to proceed, and to the extent that one values the MAC's prior
discussions here, in a process not wholly unlike the current ALSC, it might
also be worth giving their thoughts a careful read.  I appreciate the
critique in <http://www.atlargestudy.org/forum_archive/msg00002.shtml> --
that the ALSC needs an "in-depth consideration of the benefits and goals of
At-Large involvement" whereas the MAC and RCS arguably took the existence of
some form of At-Large involvement as given.  But I wouldn't think the need
for this additional consideration would totally undermine what MAC and RCS
did in the past; indeed, I think it's interesting and quite enlightening to
revisit the thoughts and worries of two years ago in the context of current
discussions.)



Ben Edelman
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Harvard Law School