[members-discuss] [rpd] Privacy breach of nomcom2015's Mailing List

[Andrew Alston]

Noah,

While I agree with you in many ways, I also believe that people tend to care more about things that they have a say in.  If the community knows they have a voice, if they know how to use that voice, they at least then know their voices are being heard and they have a say.  This in turn will encourage further participation on things such as the PDP and other discussions.

Do you have any idea how many members I have met that did not know the PDP existed?  That did not know they had a vote?  That did not know their  own rights and obligations?  The answer is, a lot.

Do I claim to have all the answers?  Of course not, and I’d love to hear more concrete suggestions on how to encourage participation, but that’s not going to stop me trying in the areas that I *DO* see while I wait for others.  End of the day, it’s all well and good for us to sit here on this mailing list and discuss these things amongst ourselves, but that is exactly the problem, it’s the same people discussing in the same forums, it’s not reaching other people.

We can also turn around as a community and say it’s up to AfriNIC to educate and get the message out there, but I personally believe that is a shirking of our own responsibility.  It is up to us as members if we want this to be a truly representative organization to bring others to the table.  It is us to up as members to get the word out there and to teach and to educate.  And you are right, what does it mean for a candidate to be truly representative of their region, that’s a very valid query.

The current electoral system allows for candidates to describe themselves and this gets put on a webpage, how many people know where to access that information beyond a single email or two pointing people to it?  How many people are commenting on the candidates?  How many responses are the candidates giving to the questions?  Do we truly have the time to question our representatives?  I am not sure the answers to any of these questions at the moment are positive, and it’s something we as a community need to do some serious thinking about, and then do something to fix the status quo.

Take for example what happened at this last meeting, the candidates came to the floor and presented themselves, but how many people actually stood up and asked the tough questions of these candidates?  Almost no one.  How many comments were on the candidate pages asking the hard questions?  Again, very few.  This is a problem.  Perhaps we even need to go as far as to having a round table debate amongst the candidates like we see in other elections around the world?  Let’s make sure our candidates actually have a desire to represent this organization and are not merely there for their own gains.

As you say, we need accountability and transparency, but unless we truly push the people who are going to be leading this organization from the board level BEFORE we put them there, that will never become a true reality.

Just my thoughts

Andrew

From: Noah [mailto:noah at neo.co.tz]
Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2015 1:18 PM
To: Andrew Alston
Cc: rpd List; ismail at habari.co.tz; Seun Ojedeji; Mwendwa Kivuva
Subject: RE: [members-discuss] [rpd] Privacy breach of nomcom2015's Mailing List


On 9 Jun 2015 11:53, "Andrew Alston" <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com<mailto:Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>> wrote:
>
> Noah,

Andrew,

>
> Let me clarify.  What I mean is, at various conferences and various forums, members will be shown how to register for BPKI certificates, they will taught how to vote, and how to use their vote.
>

Ok that is clear now.

> This is not telling people how to vote, or who to vote for, its teaching people HOW to use their voice.  Where is the issue with that?
>

You can call it teaching people how to use their voice which literally means teaching them how to vote through influence and all sorts of means.

But my personal concern is that this teaching people how to use their voice as if they are not intelligent enough to understand what is happening.....how has it benefited them or rather the community or how will it??? Explain things don't speak vaguely.

We have seen a lot happening over the years with, mostly more energy being spent on layer 9 politics and worse of it individuals going to the board under the pretext of representating the electorate/community yet their intentions are always selfish.

People are voted onto the board under the umbrella of representating say a specific region, what does that even mean, is it the actual reality on the ground and do they always carry the voice of that entire region ????

So with all the voting that has happened year in year out..!

1. Where is AfriNIC in turns of self sustainability considering its financial reports.

2. Where is AfriNIC in terms of strategic plans going forward.

3. Where is AfriNIC in terms of managing it's coffers and the ever increasing operational costs.

4. Where is AfriNIC in terms of executing its mandates and lip frogging in fact the other RIR's seeing we are still larging behind on so many fronts....

5. What do you guys do at the board besides politics and staying in expensive 5* hotels and getting allowances notwithstanding selfish interests evident with the thirst for being elected to the board year in year out..

When we look at Internet Development  across the entire continent from West to East, North to South... Are various internet driven businesses advancing from an internet growth perspective and are more and more education institutions advancing research considering how the internet can play a significant role in that regard. And am talking from NREN's down to primary schools.

Is AfriNIC engaging governments enough in terms of some of this issues seeing its the custodian of a resource that has helped advance economies like those in North America and Europe and Asia from a technological perspective.

In fact are the current policies driving us to the right direction.

This are issues we need to be concentrating on and not bickering here and there.

This is the time for accountability ya'all.We need to be accountable and we need to be honest with ourselves moving forward whatever each individuals selfish interests are whether personal or business.

What have we been doing and what are we bloody doing ???

> Andrew
>

Noah
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