RE: [ga] Meaning of "Consensus"

["Gomes, Chuck" <cgomes@verisign.com>]

The term 'consensus' needs to be defined relative to a particular
population.  For example, consensus among all members of the GA List has
quite a different meaning than consensus of the active members of the GA
List.  Similarly, consensus of the GA has a different meaning than consensus
of the DNSO.  And consensus within the DNSO undoubtedly does not necessarily
mean consensus within the broader Internet community.

It might be helpful when referring to 'consensus' to identify the population
involved.  In this particular debate, would it be correct to talk about
'consensus among active GA List participants?'  Even then, it still may not
be enough to simply take a vote to determine consensus.

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Heath [mailto:Steven.Heath@Optimation.co.nz]
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 6:01 PM
To: [ga]
Subject: RE: [ga] Meaning of "Consensus"



> Patrick Greenwell [mailto:patrick@stealthgeeks.net]

>> On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, Gomes, Chuck wrote:

>> A quorum is needed to validate a vote or a poll.  But votes and polls
should
>> not be thought of as methods for evaluating full consensus.  At best they
>> can only be a small part of the overall consensus development process.

> I'd like to echo Chuck's sentiment and add this: all of this discussion
> about "consensus" being tied to a 2/3rds majority vote is an indicator
> that people really aren't discussing consensus at all, but rather a
> democractic voting mechanism.

The 2/3 comment came about when Leah, rightly so, questioned 'what is
consensus?'.

My opinion is that motions are crafted from debate and refined 'on the fly'
and not detailed motions being posted 'out of the blue'. I agree we have had
major debate on 'alt. roots' and even discussion on ICANN .biz vs. non ICANN
.biz but I fail to see how this discussion get us to the point of this
motion.

I understand the reason for the motion I even agree with the overall essence
of it but I very much disagree with the wording and the outcomes it would
result in.

With regard to the calls for 'lets vote anyway and see if it wins or not!'.
Well, does that mean I can get the GA to vote on my pet projects whenever I
want?

Summary: As we cant seem to agree if this motion has 'consensus' I am
willing to let the Chair or Alt Chair decide if consensus has been reached
at the meta level on 'alt roots' and then if that is the case we can decide
if the proposed motion then has consensus on the .biz issue. (However, I
don't even think we have consensus in the subject of 'alt roots but I may be
mistaken).

Steven Heath

PS Can we please clip and edit replies as most posts have a few lines of new
info and scores of previous lines that are not related to the new comments.
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