RE: [ga] THIS FRIDAY end the nomination's time... Part I

[Ellen Rony <erony@marin.k12.ca.us>]

>On Thu, 2 Dec 1999 R.Gaetano@iaea.org wrote:
>
>> Because I can't believe, not even for a moment, that people like Roeland
>> Meyer, Mikki Barry, Ellen Rony, Karl Auerbach, and so on, and so forth, are
>> giving up.
>
>Roberto,

It is flattering to read that my reduced participation has been noticed.

No, Roberto, I have not given up in the broadest meaning of that term.  I
still spend the majority of my productive hours monitoring domain name
issues, updating the domainhandbook.com website, and reading these e-mails.

When the discussion descends to banter among personalities competing for
attention, I withdraw.  I wish all list members would be more respectful of
our time, since this voluntary participation for most of us must be
squeezed into a day that includes income-producing activity and other non
dns-related obligations.  I use the delete button a lot, which means that
if there are pearls of wisdom contained in the plethora of unsubstantive
banalities,  I (and many others of similar disposition) don't see them.  It
comes down to time constraints.  If one must shuck a whole ear of corn just
to get a single edible nugget, why bother?

I join those who question where in this new byzantine, bloated ICANN
structure we can have even have a voice.  Despite the thousand+ pro bono
hours I have contributed to this discussion--responding to public calls for
comment, making presentations to WIPO, posting unofficial notes of
meetings, archiving and posting links to key documents and articles about
this process--ICANN's initial legal counsel calls me an outsider.   If I am
an outsider, actively involved in these issues before he even knew the
meaning the term dns, then he is an "insider" and that us/them is the crux
of the PR problem with ICANN.

>From what I have seen since ICANN's inception, calling this transfer of
administrative functions to the private sector a "bottom up, self
governing" effort is a sham.  It's just smoke and mirrors, a dog and pony
show or window dressing while the real decisionmaking occurs in private
meetings a teleconferences.

The *only* example I can provide where bottom-up work actually got ICANN's
ear in a direct and public manner was when registrars articulated their
concerns with the DOC/ICANN/NSI Agreement at the November ICANN board
meeting. The agreement approved on November 4 included changes that
reflected the palpable concerns expressed by the registrars.  See
http://www.domainhandbook.com/icann-nsi.html for a before and after
November 4 comparison of changes the Agreement among DOC/ICANN/NSI.

It is unclear how the GA fits in concert with the constituencies and
working groups.  Even though I monitor these mailing lists daily, one needs
a road map to understand the path to affect policy (see
http://www.wia.org/icann/after_icann-gac.htm for a fascinating chart that
reveals the obfiscation better than these words can convey).  I believe
this labyrinth is intentional.  By dividing up the process into many
distinct but somehow connected components, we are left feeling powerless
and dazed when matters proceed beyond ICANN's initial charter.

I am deeply disheartened and how the events of the past year have unfolded.
I won't recount my own litany of grievances with the interim ICANN board,
but I feel that as an unelected body, it had only one obligation: to set up
the membership structure so that the users of the DNS could elect their own
representatives.  Instead, this unaccountable body has made sweeping policy
decisions on the most contentious issues of the day. A year down the road,
individuals still cannot affect this process, yet individuals--including
families, students, entrepreneurs and innovators--will be the largest
constituency of the Internet community, if they are not already.  Every
time this point surfaces, we are told that the At Large Membership will
elect 9 representatives to the ICANN board and thus have substantial power.
But a threshhold of 5,000 members must first be met, then an At Large
Council must be elected and they, in turn, select the At Large board
representatives. In other words, individuals will have to jump through
hoops to have a voice in the process.

No, Roberto, I have not given up, and here is why.  When I was young, I was
terrified of spiders.  They could emerge from their secret hiding places
and bite me when I wasn't looking.  This was my overarching fear, although
it manifested itself only when I had reason to believe that spiders were in
close proximity. I was never inclined to squash the spiders I so feared; I
felt safe from harm when I was able to keep my eyes on the offending
critter.  By monitoring its movements from a distance, I was denying it the
opportunity to surprise me, to crawl onto my body, to hurt me.

I am not terrified of ICANN, just wary.  It is my modern-day spider. So I
monitor its activities, inform myself on the issues and share that
information with others who do not or cannot invest the time required to
follow the process.   I am certainly disheartened.

I'll spare you my complete litany of grievances with the interim/initial
ICANN board and its insider/outlier mentality, ever-changing bylaws, and
expansion of technical coordination into policy-making activities.  I am
disheartened that the DNSO GA cannot elect its own chair, that the At Large
memberhips must face significant hurdles before having any board
representation whatsoever, and then only indirectly.

If wishes were horses, I would have the initial/interim ICANN board resign
immediately, ride off into the sunset with drafts of their memoirs of this
historic experiment in hand, and leave the reigns of Internet
administration to the newly elected nine. I would put all policymaking on
the back burner until the At Large membership was established and
represented on the board.  I earnestly want this to be a public, inclusive,
responsive and accountable process.

............................................................................
Ellen Rony                         ____             The Domain Name Handbook
Co-author		       ^..^     )6     http://www.domainhandbook.com
+1 (415) 435-5010    	       (oo) -^--                     ISBN 0879305150
Tiburon, CA                        W   W               erony@marin.k12.ca.us
	   DOT COM is the Pig Latin of the Information Age
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