One of the complaints heard at the public forums in Sampa is that 
constituencies have their internal discussions freely in ICANN meetings, 
but interaction among constituencies is scant or non-existent. Attempts 
at being present as observers in certain constituencies' meetings are 
met with outright denial (it is the case of the IPR+DRM+... folks), as 
some of the meeting participants discovered. So, if ICANN is or wishes 
to be the ensemble of its constituencies, it is not good that it becomes 
the ensemble of groups who do not exchange views (or articulate 
proposals) with each other. For many people the open forums are just not 
enough.

So, the NCUC promotion of these debates (like the WHOIS one, but we can 
certainly change the theme or make it broader, or even include more than 
one) is seen by several people (including members of the ICANN board) as 
an excellent opportunity to promote inter-constituency debates within 
the ICANN space. Not sufficient, of course, but necessary.

My conclusion is that we, NCUC, should make an effort to plan for a 
better-promoted, better-conceived event for Lisbon. Above all, try and 
do it well in advance to ensure we can count on certain key participants 
and take advantage of the ICANN-GNSO dissemination channels.

Despite certain very minor skirmishes with the ICANN man in charge of 
organizing everything in Sampa together with the locals, basically due 
to some glitches in communication, I did not confront any resistance to 
our initiative -- to the contrary.

This one was practically done by Robin and me, with great 
infrastructural help from Caroline, a dedicated organizer from CGI.br. I 
think it succeeded despite the fact the tha LA&C people are not really 
mobilized around the issue involved.

But if we want something better, we need a small task force to do it for 
Lisbon, and start organizing well in advance.

fraternal regards

--c.a.