Vittorio Bertola looks at the possible ways in which the ALAC could focus its work, and implicitly takes up some recent criticism.
The basic argument of those who criticize the ALAC for speaking up on policy topics is that we don't have any RALO framework up and running, so we can't claim to represent individual Internet users.
That argument is flawed: Any body within ICANN that claims to be individual users' representative would be subject to this criticism; all the models for individual user representation that have come up so far were flawed in that regard. Instead of striving for non-achievable representativity goals, it is more constructive to talk about the needs of individual users, and to back that up with both outreach and arguments. That's what we do.
This is not to say that the RALO-building part of ALAC's mission is unimportant: The RALO structure will be key both for ALAC's outreach, and for making the entire structure sustainable.
To answer to Vittorio's question is then, of course, "both": We need to focus on issues and on outreach. We need to focus on outreach in order to back up the statements we make on issues. And we must focus on issues in order to have any credibility when we do outreach. You can't get just one.
