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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Bill, <br>
<br>
Thanks for the three questions regarding the key functionalities
for NCUC (which also apply for NPOC). I will address them in
order, with a bit of commentary to help set a context for thought:<br>
<br>
<b>1. How would data base additions feed directly into our (NCUC)
website listing of members? </b><br>
Ideally, and easy to do, there could be a single operation
(extracting a subset of a membership spreadsheet (or database)
that produce the NCUC list. The labor-intensive way would be for
NCUC (and NPOC) to simply do an extraction and update every time
there are new NCSG members. It could be automated but that would
take more effort on both the ICANN staff and whomever controls the
NCUC and NPOC websites. The key would be a single membership list
source, provided to NCSG (&NCUC and NPOC) as a constituency
service by ICANN. The more automated the better.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>2. How to handle subscriptions to mailing lists?</b><br>
I have run dozens of mailing lists (using listserv like Milton
from Syracuse) and as a principle we always have someone from the
stakeholder group with co-manager/moderator authority. That should
be the case here. For the brief time I was NPOC membership chair I
had great difficulty determining the subscriber list for
npoc-voice. Automating population of mailing lists from a
membership spreadsheet is a bit of work. I would propose that
keeping the mailing lists up to date simply be a membership
committee, or communications committee, task, since the numbers
are small. The key issue here is access as a manager. My view is
that the lists should be hosted by ICANN, but managed by the
support and constituency groups. The other view, using the good
offices of Syracuse (Milton) for this list, and IPJustice.org
(Robin) works well, so choice here should be a NCSG decision.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>3. How to compose/verify voter lists for elections?</b><br>
The key issue is that an eligible voter list be accurate. That
starts from an accurate overall membership list, and accurate
mailing lists so that a step involving qualifying voters (just a
simply email response) works as it should. This is why I suggested
that NCSG members have access to a membership profile page
somewhere (within the ICANN dashboard?), a profile page is first
populated by data from a successful application, feeds the
membership database, and can be updated by the member. This is
useful when a member is not just from an organization, but
formally represents that organization and may be replaced over
time. Profiles could be updated, with notice of update sent to
those who maintain the mailing lists. The update would get
captured to NCUC and NPOC with periodic/frequent NCUC and NPOC
membership updates from the master NCSG membership list. <br>
<br>
Each of these is a quite simple improvement in handling these
three areas, is common practice elsewhere, and certainly for
ICANN, NCSG, NCUC and NPOC should be our best practice goals.
After all, we deal with the Internet. We are not a consortium of
potato farmers (which by the way do these tasks much better). It
is a tribute to the hard work of ICANN volunteers and staff that
things have been cobbled together as they have, and the work gets
done. But, on occasion we have to pause, thank all for the hard
work, and look to do things better. I am sure that many of us who
have labored in these trenches over the years have seen the
product of our hard infrastructure work be replaced, in an
instant, by a simpler and more efficient solution. I usually
congratulate the step forward and take pleasure in the fact that
the digital discards simply vanish and do not land in land fills.
<br>
<br>
Sam m<br>
<br>
<i><font color="#330099">On 27/09/2014 3:02 AM, William Drake
wrote:<br>
</font></i></div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CF8B3BFE-ADB9-4AF4-B6C0-B4498A59300D@gmail.com"
type="cite">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
<i><font color="#330099">Hi</font></i>
<div><i><font color="#330099"><br>
</font></i></div>
<div><i><font color="#330099">Thanks Sam.</font></i></div>
<div><i><font color="#330099"><br>
</font></i></div>
<div><i><font color="#330099">For the techies here (especially
Tapani, who seems the most familiar): Off the top of my head
on my first coffee of the morning, a couple question arise:
If we have an integrated db for all of NCSG, how if at all
would it affect the key functionalities for NCUC, e.g.
having data base additions feed directly into our website
listing of members (and subscribing new members to mail
lists), and the conduct of our elections? Could we set this
up in a way that Maryam just handles it for everyone? How
would we handle a hosting transfer?</font></i></div>
<div><i><font color="#330099"><br>
</font></i></div>
<div><i><font color="#330099">Thanks</font></i></div>
<div><i><font color="#330099"><br>
</font></i></div>
<div><i><font color="#330099">Bill </font></i></div>
<div><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
------------------------------------------------
"It is a disgrace to be rich and honoured
in an unjust state" -Confucius
------------------------------------------------
Dr Sam Lanfranco (Prof Emeritus & Senior Scholar)
Econ, York U., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA - M3J 1P3
email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Lanfran@Yorku.ca">Lanfran@Yorku.ca</a> Skype: slanfranco
blog: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com">http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com</a>
Phone: +1 613-476-0429 cell: +1 416-816-2852</pre>
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