[ga] Structure Taskforce

[DPF <david@farrar.com>]

Danny asked me to both represent the GA on the NC Structure Taskforce
and also to chair a committee of GA participants who are interested in
the process, suggesting we use one of the specialised GA mailing
lists.

ga-icann seems to be the most appropriate list to use so I will use
that list to keep people informed of issues before the Taskforce etc
and also to try and generate some pro-active views.

To ensure the widest available participation though I will also keep
the GA itself updated on all issues and will read any comments made
here.  So people can decide for themselves if they wish to participate
through the specialist ga-icann group or just through the normal ga
mailing list.

Before getting into some of the more detailed issues I'd be
interesting in views from people on basically whether the DNSO should
be left as it is, modified or abolished.

Most people (not all and I would like to hear from those who advocate
for the status quo) seem to accept the DNSO is not performing
particularly well.  It got effectively ignored by the Board on the
Verisign contracts issue and also appears to have been bypassed on the
issue of country name registrations in .info.

The concept of having all domain name issues resolved within the DNSO
and only get ratified by the Board is a noble one in principle.  The
reality appears to be that the DNSO has not given the Board much
guidance on domain name issues and when it has it has been ignored or
bypassed.  Can one change the DNSO so that this is not the case?  WIll
a more representative structure and more funding make enough of a
difference?

The alternate path to reforming the DNSO is what the ALSC has been
looking at and effectively abolishing it.  The intent there seems to
be dividing ICANN into a number of SOs such as providers and users
where some existing DNSO constituencies would make up the providers SO
and others the users SO.  If one goes down this path them domain name
policy would not be the exclusive province of one SO.

The number of permutations as regards to details is near infinite so
at this stage what I would find useful is some feedback on which
approach people prefer:

a) Reforming the DNSO but keeping it as the sole SO dealing with
domain name policy
b) Abolishing the DNSO and focusing on what SOs should replace it and
how they inter-act with each other

So everything is out in the open I have to say my initial inclination
is for (b) but this is not a strongly held conviction.  

DPF
--
david@farrar.com
ICQ 29964527
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