[NCUC E-team] Mailing lists

[Edward Morris]

Hello everybody.

First, thanks to Tapani, Wilson, Brenden, Bill and everyone else who worked
so hard this weekend to get the constituency revitalization process up and
running. It augers well for the coming year.

A week or two ago Bill made the suggestion that we take a look at the web
presence of some of the other constituencies. Answering that call, Sarah
and I spent a bit of time last week doing just that. What follows is
largely my impression of what we thought and talked about as we looked at
the sites. I need to state at the outset that what follows comes from me
alone. Sarah will be on the calls, is far more intelligent than I could
ever hope to be and, I'm sure,  will be able to correct me where I'm wrong
and expand, if necessary, on items where I've been too brief.

My interest in the work of this committee stems largely from my role as
Co-ordinator of the Inreach and Outreach committees. To be successful in
those responsibilities I really need this committee to do great work. I
stand ready to be accused of focusing my ideas in this committee on style
rather than substance. I will plead guilty to such "crimes". What I learnt
in my past life as a political consultant is that unless I package the
candidate (the product) properly her ideas (substance) will never be heard.
Similarly,  if our e-presence doesn't entice interest and respect our
chances for growth and influence are greatly diminished. This is
particularly true in the new "efficient" "businesslike" ICANN our CEO is
intent on delivery to the community.

Although this is the e-platform committee, I'd suggest in considering our
message we need to create a brand identity that is consistent across all
communications modalities. I'd love to have a slogan, "the heart of the
internet" is my favourite, but I fear rendition to ALAC were I ever to
propose such a crass commercial approach. Still, I'd like to suggest we
need common messaging across all platforms. For example, I expect we'll be
producing a brochure as part of our outreach efforts.The brochure should
reflect our website and vice versa. As such, it might be a good idea to run
our design and content ideas by our Communications committee (which, I
believe, Sarah is also a member of) for comment before going live.

BTW if anyone likes the idea of an all encompassing slogan I would happily
prosecute, and pay all fees associated with the prosecution, a trademark
application for the slogan.

The one area I deviate from my style over substance orientation (hey, ICANN
is based in Los Angeles, the home of this perspective) is in development of
our work space. Every active member I've spoken to tells me we need to do
better in enhancing notification of opportunities, deadlines and in the
provision of collaborative workwear. That's why I am so, so, very, very
happy Avri has joined our Committee. She knows the problems better than
anyone and I suspect might have a few suggestions. I will likely support
anything Avri suggests in this area.

As to specifics of our examination of various web presences:


1. Social Media

For the record, the NCUC does not have a Facebook presence. NCSG does  (
http://www.facebook.com/groups/64248280811/ )  and my recommendation to the
NCSG EC is that it be archived and taken down. There is great history on
that site but social media is about the here and now. An outdated Facebook
page that is not kept up regularly is a stain upon , rather than a benefit
to, the organisation that created it.

I do believe there is a role for Facebook at the NCUC, but not as a
constant web presence for our organisation. Rather pages should be created
when there is an issue of high saliency our Constituency is taking a lead
on. For example, the IOC/IRC dispute may have been such an issue. Then FB
could be used to blog positions, updates, vents and to allow for the
collaboration and participation, as well as education, of non NCUC members.
To give credit where due, David Cake introduced me to this model of FB use
and tells me it has been successful for EFF Australia. One request:
Everything we do on Facebook should be replicated on VK. I'm very
interested in expanding our CIS presence and VK is the dominant social
media platform in that part of the world.

The NCUC does  have a #NCUC Twitter handle and, apparently,  a Twitter
account. We should determine who has privileges thereof and make sure they
are given to Wilson, a Chair of the e-Team.

A rule of thumb in the commercial world is that a tweet roughly every day
is needed to maintain a respectable Twitter presence. We do not have the
resources to do this. I would suggest, however, that we deploy Twitter at
ICANN meetings and other IG events with a substantial NCUC presence. So
much is going on in these meetings that it would be useful to position
Twitter as a sort of alert system, both for those at the meeting and for
those participating remotely. In fact, remote participants are better
positioned than those at the meetings to follow multiple sessions and it
might be a good way to better involve them in the process.


2. Current NCUC Web Presence


The thing that shocked me when assuming my position on the EC was how
dysfunctional many things were. I still am unsure as to the validity of
specific governing documents. I'm amazed that anything got done under the
old structure and admire those who made it work. That said....

http://ncuc.org/

Our basic website has little to recommend it. It needs to be archived and
given a nice burial in Internet heaven.

The homepage itself is unattractive. It is cluttered, contains too much
text, and requires a lot of scrolling. That is not acceptable. Visuals are
not properly positioned for maximum impact. The blog is not updated
regularly, giving the impression of an organisation that is anything but
energized and vital. The my pages section is not intuitive. Repetition: The
front page is repeated on the deeper pages. There is no need or reason for
this.

We need to start anew.

https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=8945848

In the ideal world our goal should be to host and develop our web presence
completely independent of ICANN. The world is not ideal. If we're to
continue our use of Confluence we need to determine it's relationship with
our principle web site and not duplicate our efforts. The BC for example
does just that    https://community.icann.org/display/gnsobc/Home      and
I'm not convinced such duplication is a good idea.


Should the Committee chose to continue to use Confluence I'd suggest it be
positioned for internal use only, document storage, work product and the
like. The design is pretty much prefabricated so really is not an issue.

http://gnso.icann.org/en/about/stakeholders-constituencies/ncsg/ncuc

Of note, we also have a descriptive page on the GNSO portion of the ICANN
site.


3. Short commentary on the web presence of other constituencies


http://www.npoc.org/

A bit amateurish, but certainly a step up from our web presence.

Poor use of colours: black/blue merge at the top. Too much text: again, use
of bullet points suggested. Poor visuals, no video or images.

On the positive side, very intuitive use of lists on the left side of the
page.


http://www.bizconst.org/

Again, a bit amateurish in design: nothing lines up to create visual
constancy.

On the positive side, very intuitive to use, comprehensive and I think the
idea of a quarterly newsletter is one that is worth considering.


http://www.ipconstituency.org/

Basic, but perhaps the most professional.

Clean, uncluttered homepage. Scrolling not needed.

Has password protected member access section. If we're going to have a
"work in progress" section of our web site this is something we might want
to consider.

Has search function (+) but it should be on the top of every page, not just
the home page.


As we start the process of revitalizing our e-presence I wanted to share
these ideas with you. Look forward to getting started and working with
everyone to develop our web presence in a way that will maximize the NCUC
presence and impact at ICANN and throughout the wider internet governance
ecosphere.
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