Re: [ga] MOTION: Request for a GA resolution on an IDN holders' constituency (IC)

["William X. Walsh" <william@userfriendly.com>]

Hello Joop,

If the motion would remove the references to the IDNO organization,
and it petition, this may garner more support.

Monday, May 07, 2001, 3:01:29 AM, Joop Teernstra wrote:

> Since the Chair has now opened the floor for motions I would like to start off
> with this one:

> Motion for the Recognition of an Individuals' Constituency (IC)

> Considering the majority vote  expressed by the physically assembled GA in
> Santiago and Yokohama,

> considering the support expressed by the Association of Computing Machinery
> (ACM) since Berlin 1999 and by the non commercial constituency of the DNSO for
> an Individuals' constituency, since Santiago 2000,

> considering the Voting of the members of the DNSO-review working group  on
> this
> subject,

> considering the petition made by the first Steering Committee of  the IDNO
> which reads as follows
> August 11, 1999
> To the members of the Board of Directors of the
> Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 
> 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330 
> Marina del Rey, CA 90292 
> USA.
> L.S.,
> This letter constitutes a reiteration of our public petition of 23 April, 1999
> under Article VI-B, Section 3(d) of the ICANN bylaws for recognition of the
> Individual Domain Name Owner’s constituency (the IDNO) as a Constituency of
> ICANN’s Domain Name Supporting Organization (the DNSO.)

> The IDNO was formed in April 1999. It is a self-organized, primarily member
> funded, highly international constituency, springing from no pre-existing
> organizations or structures. Yet its membership is already larger than of any
> of the existing DNSO Constituencies. And we expect that the IDNO's membership
> will grow rapidly once the IDNO is a recognized constituency.

> IDNO members are active participants in ICANN, having attended several of
> ICANN’s meetings.

> Our members come from many parts of the world.

> IDNO members are active participants in the DNSO’s General Assembly and in the
> DNSO’s various working groups.

> The IDNO maintains a site on the World Wide Web at http://www.idno.org/
> containing a members’ list, charter, archive of on-line discussions, voting
> system, and other materials and resources.

> The IDNO has a public, archived e-mail discussion list.

> The IDNO is the only constituency with a fully operational electronic voting
> system that has been repeatedly and successfully used to guide the IDNO as it
> evolves.

> The purpose the IDNO is to give a voice to those individuals who “own” domain
> names.
> The IDNO’s focus is on individuals, not on corporations or organizations. The
> IDNO does not care whether a member is a businessperson, a teacher, an artist,
> or a person using the Internet to express his or her opinions.

> Because essentially all of the existing DNSO constituencies are open only to
> corporations and organizations, these individuals have no way but the IDNO to
> fully participate within the DNSO.

> We must mention that membership in the DNSO General Assembly, although
> nominally open to individuals, is no substitute for having a Constituency to
> defend Individuals' domain name interests. It is only through the IDNO as a
> recognized Constituency that individual domain name owners can participate
> with
> a full and peer voice on the DNSO’s names council.

> Why should the Individuals be represented in the DNSO?
> ·       Registrations of domain names by individuals represent a large
> number of
> all domain name registrations. A study conducted by Network Solutions
> estimates
> that within the United States alone, 10% of the domain names registered in the
> .com, .net, and .org domains are registered to individuals. Further, there is
> evidence to indicate that the percentage may be increasing. This leads to an
> estimated 300,000 individual domain names owners in .com, .net, and .org
> within
> the United States alone. The number worldwide, especially when in all top
> level
> domains are considered, could be substantially higher. 
> ·       Every one of these hundreds of thousands of people have a significant
> and well defined interest in the operation and development of the domain name
> system and the Internet. Yet none of these hundreds of thousands of people are
> eligible to be admitted to any of the other constituencies. 
> ·       Domains owned by individuals are often used for both commercial and
> non-commercial purposes. Individuals can not be adequately represented in
> either "business" or "non-commercial" constituencies. It is our feeling
> that as
> the net grows it will become quite common for personal hobbies to evolve into
> significant business entities. 
> ·       The IDNO is the only constituency that would provide a voice for these
> people. 
> ·       Interests and concerns of Individual Domain name Owners typically
> do not
> coincide with the Interests and concerns of the other constituencies
> represented in the DNSO. Indeed, in many cases their interests are in
> conflict.
> Thus it is necessary for there to be a constituency with a clear focus on the
> needs of individual domain name owners. 
> ·       Without a clear and fully empowered place for individual domain name
> owners, the DNSO will be a weak and limited body, speaking for only part of
> the
> Internet community. 
> The IDNO has adopted an inclusive approach to its membership. Unlike other
> Constituencies which require that a candidate for membership be a corporation
> or an organization, or be engaged in a particular type of business, the IDNO
> simply looks at whether a candidate “owns” a domain name.
> The IDNO measures ownership not by legal formalisms, but rather by a pragmatic
> evaluation whether the candidate has sufficient elements of control over a
> domain name that it amounts to what reasonable people would consider to be
> ownership. Our membership rules permit membership even when the domain name
> owner owns the name through a intermediary, such as a corporation or trust,
> that is fully under the control of the candidate.
> The IDNO has evolved beyond a gathering of people. The IDNO has both an
> elected
> Steering Committee and a Membership Committee. The IDNO is an early, and
> perhaps the first successful experiment in broadly based democratic
> participation within ICANN.
> The IDNO brings to ICANN the concerns of the individual domain name owner,
> concerns that have so far lacked an advocate.

> (appendices omitted: for the complete petition and its signatories, see
> www.idno.org/petition.htm)

> considering that the ICANN  Board has until now refrained from responding in
> public to this petition and from publishing it on its website for public
> comment,

> considering the Bylaws art. VI, section 3 (d) that reads:

> (d) Any group of individuals or entities may petition the Board for
> recognition
> as a new or separate Constituency. Any such petition will be posted for public
> comment pursuant to Article III, Section 3. The Board may create new
> Constituencies in response to such a petition, or on its own motion, if it
> determines that such action would serve the purposes of the Corporation. 

> I move that the GA will express its support for the immediate acknowledgement 
> of an Individuals' Constituency by the Board in accordance with its Bylaws.


> I move that this support will take the form of a GA Resolution recommending
> that
> the Board will  place either the creation of such an IC or the "approval in
> principle" on its Agenda for a decision in Stockholm.


> Respectfully yours,



> --Joop Teernstra LL.M.--  
> the Cyberspace Association and 
> the constituency for Individual Domain Name Owners
> Elected representative.
> http://www.idno.org  

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-- 
Best regards,
William X Walsh
mailto:william@userfriendly.com
Owner, Userfriendly.com
Userfriendly.com Domains
The most advanced domain lookup tool on the net


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