Re: [ALSC-Forum] Re: Inconsistency with ALSC recommendations

[Joanna Lane]

on 10/26/01 4:31 AM, Thomas Roessler at roessler@does-not-exist.org wrote:

> 
> On 2001-10-25 18:35:21 -0400, Joanna Lane wrote:
> 
>> With respect to adverse effects I may suffer at the hands of
>> ICANN's internet governance, the region of most importance to me,
>> and where my best interests lie, is for me to decide, not ICANN.
>> It is not necessarily the one in which I chose to be resident and
>> I think it's extremely arrogant of ICANN to unilaterally determine
>> that it is.
> 
> How do you prevent me from starting a campaign to take over the
> African region?  Sounds quite easy.
> 
> I don't think your proposal would work.

Personally, I don't have a problem with capture. Capture is a temporary
state of affairs and of secondary importance to survival, which is certainly
the overriding Issue for Africa's ALSO. In fact, if you can come up with a
sensible proposal that gives FREE ALSO membership to all African users, I'll
even join your campaign team!

The fundamental problem is that almost no African resident from the User
Community can actually afford to buy a Domain Name, so the prospects for a
viable African ALSO are not looking good.

I think it's only reasonable to expect some budgetary homework to have been
undertaken by the ALSC as part of its outreach and consensus building, and
since the action plan demands individual stakeholders purchase a domain
name, and creates a barrier to entry that is so obviously well over the top
of the trading range of poor countries such as Africa, this action plan
certainly does not stand on its own merits without supporting documentation.
Let's see the independant evidence from the ALSC's investigation brought to
light. 

FYI, the last time I was in Mombassa, (3 years ago), it cost 10 cents for a
ballpoint pen, and without one, a child was not allowed to attend school,
and many did not do so for exactly that reason. Consequently, to those
African residents, $10 represents roughly 1 child receiving an education
over the lifetime of 100 ballpoint pens, let's say *conservatively* 4 years.
If the ALSC insists on going forward with an action plan that sets the value
of ALSO membership as being more or less the voting privilege accorded to
members in the election of a handful of committee members, one Board seat
out of 19, and nothing more, and then expects the ALSO Regional centre in
Africa to pitch that sale against the value of a high school education for a
child in the local community, then frankly, ICANN is stupid. ICANN is not
stupid, which begs the questions:-

1. Who does the ALSC imagine is going to join the African ALSO if the users
can't afford it? 

2. Who is interested to build the entity and subsidize the membership?

3. Can the ALSC expect the Board commit to an action plan with confidence if
no serious expressions of interest in it have been received already?

My proposal (there may be others), is based on the belief that a fee based
membership structure creates a natural imbalance between rich and poor
nations, hence it benefits all of us to take some steps towards tilting the
balance. One way to achieve this is to grant individuals the right to
participate in the whichever ALSO they so chose, joining with local
residents and supporting them in the creation of these new entities.
In short, a regionally based ALSO, but on a more flexible arrangement than
the ALSC envisages. I'm sure this is not a new concept, but I believe it may
be worth revisiting at this time.

Regards,
Joanna