Re: [Membership] A Model for Community & Global

[toml@communisphere.com]

March 10, 1999

Dear Antoun:

AN>I'd like to see your system as a way that "the rest of us," who have the
AN>desire to get involved but not the time to go through the social ritual
AN>required to be an insider in most neighborhood organization, can jump in. If
AN>everyone could see the arguments that shape our neighborhood environment and
AN>contribute to the collaborative process of finding solutions, I think the
solutions AN>would be better and we could get over some of the roadblocks that
stymie our social AN>progress nowadays.

Last night I made the following comment before an organizational meeting
for a city-wide association of community boards "Government is commonly
criticized as unresponsive and the public as apathetic. Well, maybe it's
just the communication channels that are not up the task. Maybe its just
too damm hard to participate."  I was breathing fire last night.

AN>>AN>Sorry if that's a little impressionistic. We could talk more about it.
AN>>AN>It's not the sort of thing that I could code, but if we could get a team
AN>>AN>to write a prototype, then register the protocol as an RFC, the
AN>>AN>community could pick up the development process.

AN>>An RFC that will facilitate the "Certified ISP" and allow improved
AN>>neighborhood governance would be a beneficial project. I'd love to work
AN>>on that with you.

AN>>TL> So how do we let our neighbors using AOL, AT&T, etc. know about us?
AN>>TL> How do they gain access? How do they reap the benefits of a Community
AN>>TL> Service Tier, discussions, emergency notification, etc? How do we reach
AN>>TL> more than the do-gooders? This involves ISP Certification.

AN>>AN>Again, I don't think that's necessary. You can get the functionality you
AN>>AN>need with just a client-server exchange.

AN>>TL>I disagree. Are we to be sexier than AOL? Have them install a piece of
AN>>TL> software?

AN>Yup. AOL isn't that sexy.

OK, I guess I'm not clear on this point. If my neighbor to the left has
AOL, and the one to the right XYZ, how does this piece of add-on
software they are to install provide notification about community
affairs?

When they log on to their providers does it download our community info
to their system? And then a community flag on their browser goes up
saying "New info has arrived." ?

As to Singapore -

I was mildly pleased with the Membership activities. I only glaced at
the posting, but it seems some of the garbage has been discarded. I'll
have to check to see what the next step is. I'm presuming that the issue
is open to comment. I'll have to read it over carefully and submit my
thoughts.

As to the SOs. There was a good deal of public discussion on the DNSO,
and that's good. But I see so little on the others. I realize these are
new and delicate issues, but some reliable source of info would be
comforting. How about a Berkman Center clipping service from the vaious
lists? It should only take about 15 hours per day.

The most interesting thing I did lately on this matter was putting
together an organizational chart to explain the ICANN situation to some
associates.When they saw the governments of the world in a little box -
as an advisory  group - it had them laughing their asses off. Things
sure change fast these days.

Sincerely,

Tom Lowenhaupt
toml@communisphere.com

to:   IN:membership@icann.org
cc:   IN:anabhan@law.harvard.edu