Thank you Avri for this valuable explanation. Being a few years old new comer, I can say I feel completely lost with acronyms and the ICANN organisation. I guess others like me could want to get more involved but are lost not really getting what's going on. I admit I could have dogged and found by myself but as we are all volunteer here, it needs more incitement. Tara Taubman Sent from my iPad > On 17 Sep 2014, at 14:31, Avri Doria <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> On 17-Sep-14 08:41, Kathy Kleiman wrote: >> +1 to avoiding acronyms! Even I am having trouble following some >> postings - and I have been here forever... > > > I think avoiding them is impossible and asking people to do so is > unreasonable. And I think that newcomers need to learn them, that is > the first step in becoming active. > > I argue instead, that people, especially experienced people, should give > a translation on first use in an email, text or speech. Though even > there, how far does one need to go? Does one need to translate all of > these on first use in NCSG discussions: e.g. (for example) ICANN > (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), GNSO (Generic > Names Supporting Organization), NCSG (Non Commercial Stakeholder Group), > SCI (Standing Committee on Improvements), IRTP-D (Inter Registrar > Transfer Policy - the 4th WG in the sequence of IRTP WGs (Working > Groups)). > > In fact on some of these I would argue that knowing that - GNSO is the > name for the group the NCSG belongs to ... - is more important than > knowing what the letters stand for. Also if we require newcomers to use > the proper names instead of the acronyms they can learn easily, I expect > we would actually slow down their involvement. It is hard to remember > what every acronym stands for, even when you know perfectly well what it > is. Isn't just knowing the name of the group IRTP-D, even if you don't > know the exactly meaning of every letter (i had to confirm whether it > was policy or process) easier to remember? > > However, until such time as we all become perfect and find the right > balance point, do remember to use the acronym helpers. My favorite is: > > http://www.andalucia.com/acronym/home.htm > > Perhaps we can include it in the list's message footer. There is also an > official ICANN one, but i forget its url and as is often the case, could > not find it quickly on the improved web site - I would put it in the > message footer as well. > > >> On 17-Sep-14 08:21, Nuno Garcia wrote: >> >> I will start tomorrow to bring new interested members to the >> Non-Commercial Users Constituency. > > > Why NCUC (Non-Commercial Users Constituency) instead of the NCSG > (Non-Commercial Stakeholder group)? Not only is that the group they are > required to join first, they do not need to join a constituency, so > perhaps new members should be allowed to watch the constituencies in > action and decide on their own if and when they want to join a constituency. > > I would also argue that while getting new members is good, more > important is getting more of the hundreds of members we now have, > involved. We are already the biggest and most diverse group in ICANN. > What we are not, is sufficiently involved. > > avri > > > Ps. another helpful aid, which i often forget, when you spin a thread > onto a tangent, change the subject.