[ga] International Study Team Issues Letter to ICANN Study

[Rob Courtney <rob@cdt.org>]

Members of the General Assembly:

Earlier today, known as the NGO and Academic ICANN Study (NAIS) 
issued a letter to ICANN's new Study Committee requesting access to 
important data from last year's  election of At-Large Directors to 
the ICANN Board. The NAIS team includes representatives from 
non-profit and academic organizations worldwide, and is currently 
preparing an in-depth study of public representation in ICANN.

CDT and its partner Common Cause serve as North American members of 
NAIS; the entire NAIS team consists of:

  - Izumi Aizu, Principle, Asia Network Research
  - Jerry Berman, Executive Director; Alan Davidson, Associate 
Director; and Rob Courtney, Policy Analyst; Center for Democracy and 
Technology, USA
  - Adam Peake, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Global 
Communications (GLOCOM), International University of Japan.
  - Christian Ahlert, Center for Interactive Media, University of 
Giessen, Germany
  - Scott Harshbarger, President; Don Simon, General Counsel; and Andy 
Draheim, Senior Policy Analyst; Common Cause, USA
  - Raúl Echeberría, Instituto Nacional de Investigatión Agropecuaria, Uruguay
  - Clement Dzidonu, President and CEO, International Institute for 
Information Technology (INIIT), Ghana
  - Stefaan Verhulst, Director, Programme in Comparative Media Law and 
Policy, Oxford University, UK
  - Myungkoo Kang, Department of Communication, Seoul National 
University, Seoul, South Korea
  - Jeanette Hofmann, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin/NEXUS, Germany

I am attaching a copy of our letter to ICANN Study Committee Chair 
Carl Bildt, transmitted to him on February 7, 2001. A copy of the 
letter is also available at:
http://www.cdt.org/dns/icann/nais/010207bildt.shtml

An overview of the NAIS team and its study project is available at:
http://www.cdt.org/dns/icann/nais/010207overview.shtml

Please feel free to contact me if you have any inquiries or thoughts 
regarding either of these documents, or the NAIS effort itself.

Rob Courtney
Policy Analyst
Center for Democracy & Technology

* * *

February 7, 2001


Mr. Carl Bildt
Chair
At-Large Membership Study Committee
Internet Corporation for Assigned
   Names and Numbers
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA 90292


Dear Mr. Bildt:

Congratulations on being selected to lead the At-Large Membership 
Study Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and 
Numbers (ICANN):  a challenging task as ICANN's activities can have a 
substantial impact on the development and growth of the Internet 
community. The At-Large Membership Study Committee's vital function 
will be to review that impact in light of the public representation 
currently offered in ICANN and to propose new directions for 2001.

In furtherance of the Study Committee's work, we offer several 
suggestions for your consideration as the Committee begins its task.

When the ICANN Board created the At-Large Membership Study Committee, 
it anticipated that the findings and recommendations of independent 
study groups working outside of ICANN's formal process would 
substantially inform the Committee's work.  The undersigned 
individuals and organizations constitute one such study team.

The "NGO and Academic ICANN Study," or NAIS, is an international 
group of scholars and representatives of the public interest 
community, all of whom have been involved in ICANN and Internet 
issues on an ongoing basis. A description of the group and a list of 
its participants are attached to this letter.

NAIS will undertake a comprehensive study of the recent ICANN 
election, the concept of the At-Large membership, and the nature of 
public representation for the ICANN Board of Directors as a whole.

We look forward to working with the ICANN Study Committee, and hope 
that the Committee will find our work useful as it considers its own 
recommendations.

Among other initiatives, NAIS is planning to sponsor a public forum 
on issues related to the study in conjunction with the upcoming 
Melbourne meeting. We hope to organize a number of presentations as a 
means of beginning an open dialogue with the ICANN community on the 
successes and failures of the recent election, and the options for 
the future. We would very much like to work with the Study Committee 
in planning this session to ensure that it is successful and 
productive.

As you know, one hallmark of any good research project is access to 
the best possible data. In the case of the At-Large study, much of 
the information about what happened, and why, resides in the 
expertise of the individuals who planned and implemented last year's 
election. But a great deal of equally important data resides in the 
internal records of ICANN and of its election administrator, 
election.com.

We hope that ICANN and its Study Committee will make all of this 
election data available not only to the undersigned researchers, but 
to other research efforts as well. The ICANN Board decided that this 
study process should be conducted by self-organizing groups of the 
ICANN community. Such studies can be valid only if there is 
relatively unfettered access to all relevant data. Without such 
access, serious research will not be possible, and the validity and 
legitimacy of the outside studies will be compromised. These studies 
will then be of less use to the Study Committee, and the whole point 
of the Board's decision to rely on such outside efforts will be 
defeated.

In other words, we suggest that a primary purpose of the Study 
Committee may be to facilitate the efforts by outside, 
self-organizing study groups such as ourselves to gain access to all 
relevant data. As such, the Study Committee might work to ensure the 
cooperation of ICANN in providing access to data, documents and key 
personnel to outside study groups. In addition, there is substantial 
work to be done to ensure that personally-identifiable information is 
removed from the released data, so as to preserve ICANN's commitment 
to protecting the privacy of voters.

We attach to this letter a list of the categories of data and 
documents to which we request access as an initial matter. We would 
be pleased to cooperate with you, and with ICANN's staff, to ensure 
that access granted us would cause a minimal disruption to the Study 
Committee's important work. To the extent possible, we additionally 
suggest that you consider making this data available by posting it on 
the Internet, or providing controlled access via the Internet to all 
self-organized study groups.

By providing this access, the Study Committee and ICANN can 
demonstrate their commitment to complete and valid outside study 
efforts, and encourage a better understanding of the successes, 
shortcomings, and unanswered questions in last year's election.

The time allotted for reviewing the election is short, and the speedy 
release of this data would enable the work of our study team, as well 
as others, to get underway. We are anxious to do so. We look forward 
to cooperating with you and your Committee on this important project, 
and wish you good luck in this important effort you have undertaken.


Sincerely,

The NGO and Academic ICANN Study  (NAIS)
(Organizational affiliations are provided below for identification 
purposes only)

Izumi Aizu, Principle, Asia Network Research

Jerry Berman, Executive Director; Alan Davidson, Associate Director; 
and Rob Courtney, Policy Analyst; Center for Democracy and 
Technology, USA

Adam Peake, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Global Communications 
(GLOCOM), International University of Japan.

Christian Ahlert, Center for Interactive Media, University of Giessen, Germany

Scott Harshbarger, President; Don Simon, General Counsel; and Andy 
Draheim, Senior Policy Analyst; Common Cause, USA

Raúl Echeberría, Instituto Nacional de Investigatión Agropecuaria, Uruguay

Clement Dzidonu, President and CEO, International Institute for 
Information Technology (INIIT), Ghana

Stefaan Verhulst, Director, Programme in Comparative Media Law and 
Policy, Oxford University, UK

Myungkoo Kang, Department of Communication, Seoul National 
University, Seoul, South Korea

Jeanette Hofmann, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin/NEXUS, Germany


cc: Charles Costello
     Pindar Wong
     Denise Michel
     Vinton Cerf
     Michael Roberts
     Andrew McLaughlin
     Louis Touton, Esq.


Enclosures:
   Initial List of Data & Documents


Initial List of Data & Documents
--------------------------------
* Server logs. The logs of the systems that ICANN and election.com 
used for voter education, registration, activation, and voting 
programs contain important information about user access patterns at 
various stages of the elections. They will provide clues about system 
load and about voter facility with the systems. They may also provide 
some limited data on the potential for capture, by indicating whether 
substantial numbers of registrations came from one entity or 
organization. Personally-identifiable information should be stripped 
from this data before its distribution to the public, in order to 
preserve ICANN's guarantee of privacy for voters.

* Registration records. Public release of at least some information 
collected from users by ICANN's registration and activation servers 
would greatly facilitate any election study. Since user participation 
in each stage of the membership process- registration, activation, 
and voting-dropped off substantially in all regions, these records 
should be reviewed. In the interests of privacy, 
personally-identifiable information such as e-mail addresses or 
mailing addresses should be masked where they appear, but other 
identifiers that cannot be reliably tied to real-world identities 
should be left intact.

* Mailing records. Failure to receive PIN numbers has been a major 
grievance by voters and would-be voters in the election. Review of 
ICANN's system for mailing these numbers, as well as other 
election-related correspondence (paper and electronic) will help to 
understand how such problems could be avoided in the future.

* Voting records. Indications of voter participation, as well as 
independent scrutiny of the vote count, are important parts of any 
election review. Once again, personally-identifiable information 
should be masked to protect the secrecy of the ballot.

* Technical specifications. Both ICANN and election.com experienced 
technical difficulties at key moments in the registration and 
election processes. Their systems should be reviewed, and the reasons 
behind those difficulties understood.

* Financial records. Orchestration of a worldwide election is no 
small undertaking, and the cost of an election is of major importance 
when considering future efforts to select Directors. ICANN should 
publish detailed records of costs and funding sources for the 
election.

* Communications. The internal and external communication of ICANN 
officers and staff regarding the election will offer important 
insights into the way that major decisions were made. The public 
record should include the communications of the Election and 
Nominating Committees.

--

Rob Courtney
Policy Analyst
Center for Democracy & Technology
1634 Eye Street NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
202 637 9800
fax 202 637 0968
rob@cdt.org
http://www.cdt.org/
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