Single Letter Reserved Names

[Milton Mueller]

>>> Avri Doria <avri at LTU.SE> 3/7/2007 11:23 PM >>>
>> No one except full time lobbyists can keep up with them all,
>not to make a big deal of it, but i am keeping up with them as a
>volunteer with my income coming from a totally different area of

Avri, you may be missing my point. Sure, someone entirely dedicated to
these efforts and as skillful and experienced as you at online process
can keep up with a couple of these groups, maybe one or two more.

My point, however, is that the uncontrolled proliferation of these
groups can be used strategically -- and WILL be used strategically -- to
become a defacto exclusion mechanism if the opportunity arises.

This whole approach to policy development is simply not in the
interests of the public and of our constituency. It effectively
restricts participation to full time lobbyists.

A group (Reserved Names) that is a branch of one PDP is already so
deeply embdeed in the process that only a tiny few are aware of its
existence, much less able to participate in or track it. To say that
this subgroup can then spin off multiple sub-subgroups at a moment's
notice, and that these sub-subgroups can have a controlling interest in
defining the policy options, is not something we want to encourage --
especially when volunteer participation means that any given
sub-subgroup can be really imbalanced.

We need public, visible and representationally balanced processes,
using known procedures and known schedules.