Re: [ga] Business Constituency

[DannyYounger@cs.com]

Jon,

Philip also talks about the wonderful characteristics of his moderated BC 
mailing list, which include:

1.  Editing of messages by a moderator who is charged with "minimising the 
unnecessary and untidy correspondence characteristic of certain e-mail lists 
within the ICANN world."  This censorship is described as a "value-added 
service".

2.  The moderator is at liberty to composite replies on the same topic, 
change the subject line, remove trailing e-mails, or take any other action 
designed to make reading the e-mails simple for members (apparently BC 
members don't have the intellectual acumen to read their own e-mails without 
assistance).

3.  The moderator may engage in selective censorship by reserving the right 
to refuse all contributions as the moderator sees fit. 

4.  To discourage all discussion so that only BC reps can rule the roost, the 
moderator restricts member posts to only one per day.

5.  Most importantly, since the BC has absolutely no respect for ICANN Bylaws 
on transparency, the lists are not publicly archived (this helps to conceal 
the fact that discussion is almost non-existent, and allows the BC reps to 
make grandiose statements that "the BC position is..." when in fact no one 
has commented on the occasional drafts that have been put forth).

Further, the BC website claims that "through the ICC World Chamber Federation 
and the regional structure of MEDEF the BC outreaches to over 1.5 million 
companies worldwide."  

I wrote to the World Chamber Federation on this topic and they replied that 
they are not a member of the Business Constituency, although the ICC is such 
a member.  I also spoke on the phone to Ms. Ayesha Hassan whose team is 
responsible for managing ICC's work regarding ICANN.  It appears that the ICC 
has not engaged in any so-called "outreach" to its members to discuss 
BC-generated topics, nor have they participated in any meaningful fashion as 
yet in current BC activities.  They have a problem attempting to aggregate 
views from 130 different communities spanning the globe and their broad 
membership is frankly not even aware of their affiliation with the BC 
(although efforts are underway to overhaul their website to make it more 
user-friendly).  That said, the ICC does however sincerely seek to be more 
responsive, so perhaps the BC can one day actually begin to involve their 
paying members in the process instead of merely claiming that the payment of 
a membership fee instantly equates to the representation of millions of 
companies.  They referred me to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce person by the name 
of Marilyn Cade that could perhaps assist in answering additional questions.  
 

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