Re: [ALSC-Forum] SLASHDOT

[Alan Levin]

Sorry you missed this....

During the Montevideo meeting there was a slashdot thread relating to the
ALSC, specifically the ALSC outreach meeting, and the Reuters article
regarding comments that Carl Bildt and I had made.

Unfortunately, although one can potentially extract some useful information
from the hundreds of postings, much of it is MUCH worse rubbish than even I
could come up with.

Mostly, I can extract from the threads that the world is very sceptical of
the value that ICANN adds to the Internet whether the scope of ICANNs
mission is narrow or large.

Some extracts... from sources I believe are not on this list... extracted
from those posts that were rated >3 (of 5). in order from top. (I apologise
for the following content in this email, these are not my views, and
possibly inappropriate to post)

<snip>
.......Not that I'm defending ICANN. Does ANYONE actually support the
existence of this group of people? Have they actually accomplished ANYTHING
in practice, other than alienating Internet users? They seem to exist solely
for the purpose of holding useless meetings in exotic places -- good work if
you can get it, but a waste of our time and money in the long run.

<snip>
"In a report released last week, the committee recommended giving six board
seats to "at large" users, with one each coming from North America, Latin
America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India and the Asian Pacific
region." Just six? That is less than the majority of the body that makes up
ICANN. ICANN seems to be doing a good job butting heads with the "users at
large" The users at large should be defining the how we "navigate the
internet". politics and technology have a long way to go still. More techies
need to run for office!

<snip>
Paternalistic, indeed -- nobody is suggesting we "tear down" the internet
simply because most people on earth are too poor to afford domain names.
They are suggesting that the poor be able to vote or run for office --
hardly a notion I would consider shocking.

Bildt seems to think that instituting a poll tax with only landowners able
to vote is the way to increase participation in this democracy? Which
version of world history did he study that led him to believe this was at
all acceptable in the 21st century?

<snip>
What a complete load of crap.

But at least the critics are paying attention. Participants here conceded
that the issue of public involvement has failed to capture the public's
attention. ICANN had set up a conference-call line so those not in
Montevideo could participate, but an operator reported that no one had
dialed in.

Hello? McFly? I'm an at-large member, and I never heard of this... Of course
no one called an unlisted, unadvertised number. You have to preregister to
get the number. It took me a fair bit of searching to find that little
nugget of information after reading this article. I'm on the announcement
list they say has so few subscribers; I haven't seen any useful
announcements.

And if public participation is so low, why do they want to lower it? How
many of the current at-large members will remain at-large members once they
accept their internal version of the world? The At-Large Study draft
[atlargestudy.org] doesn't give an estimate. Fancy that.

Flamebait? You bet. They deserved to be roasted alive. This Bildt guy worked
for RAND Europe. Hm. Niles is a US ex-Ambassador. Hm. Dandjinou is
responsible for the African domain names mentioned in the article. Hm. Many
have backgrounds that make me go Hm. Many of the agencies and groups
mentioned throughout have ties that give conspiracy theorists major woodies.

<snip>
I've been an At-Large member since ICANN started the project. Although I am
on the announcement list I haven't received a single e-mail about meetings,
initiatives or what-have-you in months (at a minimum).

I, for one, am tired of Esther Dyson's self-righteous elitist cronies
telling the rest of us how the Internet should be.

I was skeptical but had hopes when the At Large initiative started. I've now
come to see it as it is: a sham that gives the illusion of openness and the
air of democratic legitimacy to those who willingly turn a blind eye to the
autocratic, business-as-usual attitude of the ICANN Board. By the way,
here's the text of a relevant rejected post I sent in:

Studies: Public Participation in Internet Policy (Your Rights Online,
Internet)

more at http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/09/08/2315249&mode=thread



----- Original Message -----
From: "Esther Dyson" <edyson@edventure.com>
To: <DannyYounger@cs.com>
Cc: <forum@atlargestudy.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 2:39 PM
Subject: Re: [ALSC-Forum] SLASHDOT


>
> so, please send an article to Slashdot and let's see if we can provoke
some
> comment/interest.  That would be a useful action.
>
> Esther
>
> At 03:18 PM 11/6/2001, DannyYounger@cs.com wrote:
>
> >The Committee wonders if there is any interest in the At-Large, and has
> >requested that the CEO of ICANN solicit expressions of interest to
determine
> >the degree of interest.
> >
> >I note that a single article in SLASHDOT can generate an instantaneous
and
> >enormous response.
> >http://slashdot.org/yro/01/11/06/1343226.shtml
> >
> >Too bad that the committee failed to grasp the concept of properly using
the
> >Internet for "outreach".
>
>
>
> Esther Dyson Always make new mistakes!
> chairman, EDventure Holdings
> writer, Release 3.0 (on Website below)
> edyson@edventure.com
> 1 (212) 924-8800    --   fax  1 (212) 924-0240
> 104 Fifth Avenue (between 15th and 16th Streets; 20th floor)
> New York, NY 10011 USA
> http://www.edventure.com
>
> High-Tech Forum in Europe: canceled this year (details on Website)
> PC FORUM: 24 to 27 March 2002, Scottsdale (Phoenix), Arizona
>
>