Re: [ga] GA & the Steady State Future

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

On 2002-10-10 16:17:09 +0200, ADD-CT wrote:

>excuse my ignorance: I arrived to this list searching the way to  
>belongs or participate in ICANN. 

... and you are very much welcome.

>If you click on "participate in ICANN" (www.icann.org), you will 
>go to www.dnso.icann.org and, from there, to "mailing lists". At 
>this point, I don't know what to think.  Am I a member of the 
>ICANN? Or a member of DNSO? Or only a member of this mailing list?

Well, ICANN doesn't have members, technically.  (And I'll get a  
follow-up from Karl Auerbach in which he'll dispute the effectivity  
of these bylaw provisions in view of the CNPPBL, or however that law 
is abbreviated.)

The DNSO (which has two analogues, the ASO and the PSO) is built up  
out of a number of distinct "constituencies": Business users,  
Non-Commercial Users, Intellectual Property Interests, ISPs,  
Registrars, Registries, and ccTLDs.  In addition to that, there's  
this mailing list, the General Assembly, which also corresponds to a 
"plenary session" at ICANN physical meetings.

Much of the work in the DNSO is supposed to happen on the Names  
Council (where the constituencies are represented) and in Working  
Groups (nowadays: closed Task Forces, consisting of constituency  
representatives).

The GA is supposed to be a forum for intelligent discussion of DNSO  
issues, and for consensus-building.  In the past, it has also  
regularly sent participants to the various Task Forces (who have,  
at times, been very active). The chair and co-chair have been  
regularly participating in Names Council telephone conferences.

In the reformed future ICANN, the DNSO will be renamed GNSO, the  
ccTLDs are going to get their own Supporting Organization.  There  
will be a new "Policy Development Process" which will replace the 
current task force model.

The future GNSO won't have a formal "General Assembly" according to  
the current plans, and the participation in new-style Task Forces  
thus won't be open for individual participants.  Public  
participation will have to go through a beast called ALAC (At-Large  
Advisory Committee).  I hope that it will be possible to persuade  
the board that ALAC participation in the policy-development process  
is a good idea.  

Abolishing the notion of a "General Assembly" (in the current  
bylaws, the GA is almost the incarnation of the DNSO as a whole)  
does not mean that this mailing list will stop to exist, and it also 
does not mean that it won't continue to be read by an astonishing  
number of people.  After all, it's the best discussion forum we have 
for ICANN matters, alongside, maybe, with the NCDNHC's discussion  
list.

Now, what to do if you want to participate beyond that?  If you can, 
join one of the existing constituencies.  If you're just an  
individual participant (like me), look out for the ALAC's future  
activities, or try to contribute some more reason to the folks at  
icannatlarge.com.  When there's an opportunity and you feel  
interested in and knowledgeable on some topic, try to join a task  
force.  (I don't know how that'll work in the future, though - I  
just hope that it will continue to be possible.)

When you believe that you have a valuable comment to make on some  
topic, make it.  Frequently, you'll be ignored, but occasionally, it 
actually works.


PS: There's one web site you should _really_ visit daily. That's  
Bret Fausett's icann.blog.us.  Besides that, you may also wish to  
take an occasional look at icannwatch.org, and at my own blog (see  
.sig).  If you understand German, I'd also recommend Alexander  
Svensson's icannchannel.de.

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