| Dear Members of icannatlarge,
We are contacting you because you expressed an interest
in Internet User
participation in the administration of the net's vital
functions. Since you
joined icannatlarge, the ICANN Board has hardened its
line on "At Large" (Internet Users)
representation in their government of the net, and have
resolved to expel
the democratically elected representatives of ordinary
internet users.
Unless we get our act together, we may be saddled with
an imposed "top-down" structure for internet
users,
which keeps the At large under ICANN's oversight, while
affording it no
powers. The ICANN Board has, in effect, carried out
a coup to perpetuate its
own powerbase - a powerbase which marginalises the millions
of ordinary
internet users around the world.
IcannAtLarge.com was set up to protect the interests
of Internet Users,
develop "bottom up" processes for their democratic
representation, and
provide an independent voice and forum for the At Large.
In line with this "bottom up" principle, some
individual members have
contributed to the setting up of members'questions in
the Polling Booth, to give YOU, the
individual member, the power to pose your own questions
and cast your vote
to help define exactly what the grassroots of our organisation
wants in
terms of mission, goals, and strategy.
This is an exciting further step in the 'democratisation'
of our movement,
demonstrating real commitment to a "bottom up"
process in complete contrast
to ICANN's top-down autocracy.
To voice your opinion through the polling process, or
to submit questions of
your own, just go to:
www.pollingbooth.info and copy in the username and password
you can find at
the foot of this message.
We hope that this bottom up process will help inform
decision making for our
organisation. We support the elected panel and our user
initiative is
intended as a constructive contribution to the development
of a truly
democratic, "bottom up" At Large.
regards,
Richard Henderson (At Large Panelist endorsing the
Polling Booth)
James Khan (At Large Grassroots member endorsing the
Polling Booth)
For more background and to help you form your opinion,
please check out the following URL's:
www.icannatlarge.com
www.icannatlarge.com/Forum
www.icannatlarge.org
(new "official" site)
http://www.fitug.de/atlarge-discuss/
(mailing list archive)
You will be voting about:
Our Mission options
How should we be organized?
What kind of organizational development do you favour?
Do you want to join a Party?
Would you help to set up a Party?
More or less Direct Democracy?
Direct Democracy or Board Authority?
Who would you trust to write an Icannatlarge Charter?
(tick as many as you want)
Pre-Nomination process for
ICANN AtLarge:
Who would you NOT want on the Nominating Committee?
(tick names)
Can all members poll their fellow members?
Being Inside or outside ICANN?
Regular polls or not?
Trusting ICANN's At Large structuring
To RALO or not to RALO (Regionalise)
On new Panel elections
Tips for easy voting:
Please cut and paste your password into www.pollingbooth.info
to prevent misreading.
After voting on your first topic, click "topics"
to return to the other voting topics without logging
out. "Home" takes you back to the login page.
For some topics, you can immediately see the result
of the current votes. Log in with your password and
click on "results".
For other topics we have not enabled this function,
in order to prevent any unintended feedback effects
on the voting.
The voting starts NOW and will close on February 7,
12:00 GMT
Happy voting!
-Joop Teemstra (At large member and Polling Booth webmaster)
www.pollingbooth.info
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