[ga] GA summary 2002-06

[Thomas Roessler <roessler@does-not-exist.org>]

This summary covers the DNSO GA mailing list's (and related) 
discussions and news during the 6th (and the beginning of the 7th) 
week of 2002.  GA list archives are available online at 
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/maillist.html>.  Please 
feel free to forward this summary as you believe to be appropriate.


				Votes

There were no ongoing General Assembly votes during the week 
covered.

The names council's vote on a possible waiver of rules of procedure 
was finished on February 6, with 10 votes in favor, 9 against, and 
one abstention.  As pointed out by Louis Touton (and noted earlier 
by Danny Younger), this means that the waiver was not formally 
accepted during this vote.  Also, as Touton points out, the Names 
Council "may not formally act through a vote conducted by e-mail 
alone." 
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/council/Arc09/msg00116.html>, 
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/council/Arc09/msg00125.html>.




				Topics

(i) WLS.  Abel Wisman presented a first draft of a response to the 
revised WLS proposal.  This draft contained various questions 
collected from various mailing lists.  Independently of that, Thomas 
Roessler prepared another (considerably shorter) list of questions, 
and, finally, George Kirikos submitted no less than twenty 
questions.  Alexander Svensson eventually created a compilation of 
all the different sets of questions, which was then submitted to 
Verisign.
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00846.html>,
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00866.html>,
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00899.html>,
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00926.html>.

Danny Younger sent a pointer to the registrars' set of questions.
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/registrars/Arc01/msg02018.html>

(ii) Structure Task Force.  Danny Younger commented on the structure 
task force's work.  He notes that version 5 of the task force's 
draft was posted on January 17, that it had seen practically no 
comments from the DNSO.  Version 6 (which was supposed to be based 
on comments received) is still missing.  According to Danny, this is 
proof for the "continued failure" of the task force approach.  Also, 
he demands that the TF should focus on restructuring the DNSO.  As 
Danny puts it, "none of us care much about the BC's and IPC's 
opinion about the future ALM."
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00897.html>

In a follow-up, Peter de Blanc points out that he disagrees (!) 
about the possible ability of the at-large to become a "possible 
financial force within ICANN."  As an example, he takes just one US 
dollar per member.
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00938.html>.

Alexander Svensson replies that small membership fees are hardly 
practical, since sending such donations to the US directly would 
create banking costs which make any payment unpractical.  As 
examples, he lists GhanaExpress and NigeriaDirect, where a transfer 
of $ 1 would generate a fee of $ 12.  He concludes that collecting 
small fees directly would generate prohibitive transaction costs.
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00943.html>

Mike Roberts suggests that the only option which may be implemented
("an imperfect, but feasible option") is "a self-organized initial
cohort of ALSO participants who are willing to pay a membership fee
by credit card." He quotes "a sustaining individual membership" as a
"general type of minimum test."
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00945.html>

In a follow-up message, David P. Farrar asks for a reference about
the board indicating a minimum threshold of 5,000 members for a
viable at-large organization (which was also mentioned by Mike).
David estimates that the "chances of getting 5,000 people to
initially pay $ 25 is near zero." He suggests a lower fee and a
lower threshold.
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00950.html>

(iii) Transfer Task Force.  Danny points to discussion notes from 
the task force's latest conference call.  The notes were pointed to 
the registrars list by Ross Rader.
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00898.html>,
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/registrars/Arc01/msg02001.html>.

(iv) Webcast of Accra meetings.  Ben Edelman pointed out that the
Berkman Center's staff will not be present in Accra, and that ICANN
itself should be contacted for webcast details.
<http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga/Arc09/msg00947.html>


-- 
Thomas Roessler                        http://log.does-not-exist.org/
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