[ga] ANNOUNCE: Proposed NC Procedure from Berkman Center

["Ben Edelman" <edelman@law.harvard.edu>]

At its August meeting in Santiago, Chile, the Names Council asked the
Berkman Center to propose a set of procedures by which it might more
effectively conduct its in-person meetings.  Several Harvard Law School
students have researched the task and prepared a draft recommended
procedure.  Rather than attach the surprisingly large Word documents and
PowerPoint presentations to this message, I've posted them online at

<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/dnso/ncprocedure/>


The students working on the project began their recommendation to the Names
Council with the following text that I think effectively frames the task at
hand:

"Thank you for inviting us to participate and contribute in your efforts to
come up with a workable Domain Name System.  We hope to facilitate the
objectives of the Names Council, namely, advising the ICANN Board with
respect to policy issues relating to the Domain Name System.  We have
therefore provided a set of procedural rules that the Names Council can
adhere to when formulating consensus recommendations.  Enclosed are our
suggestions for the Names Council meeting procedures, as well as our
conception of how the Names Council formulates recommendations and presents
them to the ICANN board.  While the rest of this package will explain in
detail the procedures we suggest and why we urge their adoption, this brief
letter will attempt to highlight some of the themes and policies that
underlie our choices and motivate our reasoning.  We hope you find these
comments and procedures to be helpful as you tackle the DNS issues ahead."


The document remains a work in progress; the students, other Berkman Center
staff and affiliates, and, I believe, the Names Council itself all solicit
comments and suggestions from all interested parties.  To that end, we've
prepared a discussion space on the web site, though we'll also be following
the ga@dnso.org list for relevant discussion taking place here.



Ben Edelman
Berkman Center