ICANN/DNSO
DNSO Mailling lists archives

[ga-full]


<<< Chronological Index >>>    <<< Thread Index >>>

[ga] WLS decision makes "bottom-up" initiatives like ALAC seem meaningless


Title: Help
I have to say, after the ICANN Board's recent proposals/decisions on WLS, which ignored the prevailing views of its constituencies (if you set aside the gTLDs)... it makes you wonder what the participation is for.
 
The ALAC initiative is another example, when set in the context of WLS. If the ICANN Board just reverses the judgement and advice of DNSO and others and "does what it likes" in a "top-down" autocratic manner, then what on earth will be the point of an ALAC which has even less influence?
 
All we achieve is to legitimise their "top-down" decisions because they can then point to us and say: Look! There's a process for participants. etc etc. A process which they then ignore at will.
 
I have felt all along that since the @large is despised by the ICANN Board as a threat to their "absolute power", and since they have no intention of surrendering power to the @large, our only remaining policy is to "go round" ICANN and "bypass" their structures, by building an organisation which is so substantial and numerically convincing, that we can find supporters outside ICANN to pressurise the Board into ceding us power.
 
To me, it's the only realistic way.
 
We set our own agenda. We build our own community. We demonstrate how representative it can be. We uphold transparent processes of integrity.
 
What we cannot afford to do, is to "legitimise" the typical autocracy we've witnessed here with the WLS decision, where it doesn't matter who participates or what they are saying, the ICANN politburo will still do whatever they want on behalf of a limited commercial group whose interests it seeks to uphold at all costs.
 
The WLS fiasco illustrates why ALAC is likely to be futile, powerless, and counter-productive.
 
Richard Henderson


<<< Chronological Index >>>    <<< Thread Index >>>