Bill,

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:

*1. How would data base additions feed directly into our (NCUC) website 
listing of members? *
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.
*
**2. How to handle subscriptions to mailing lists?*
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.
*
**3. How to compose/verify voter lists for elections?*
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.

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.

Sam m

/On 27/09/2014 3:02 AM, William Drake wrote:
/
> /Hi/
> /
> /
> /Thanks Sam./
> /
> /
> /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?/
> /
> /
> /Thanks/
> /
> /
> /Bill /
>

-- 
------------------------------------------------
"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: [log in to unmask]   Skype: slanfranco
blog:  http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com
Phone: +1 613-476-0429 cell: +1 416-816-2852