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[ga] International Study Team Issues Letter to ICANN Study
Members of the General Assembly:
Earlier today, known as the NGO and Academic ICANN Study (NAIS)
issued a letter to ICANN's new Study Committee requesting access to
important data from last year's election of At-Large Directors to
the ICANN Board. The NAIS team includes representatives from
non-profit and academic organizations worldwide, and is currently
preparing an in-depth study of public representation in ICANN.
CDT and its partner Common Cause serve as North American members of
NAIS; the entire NAIS team consists of:
- Izumi Aizu, Principle, Asia Network Research
- Jerry Berman, Executive Director; Alan Davidson, Associate
Director; and Rob Courtney, Policy Analyst; Center for Democracy and
Technology, USA
- Adam Peake, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Global
Communications (GLOCOM), International University of Japan.
- Christian Ahlert, Center for Interactive Media, University of
Giessen, Germany
- Scott Harshbarger, President; Don Simon, General Counsel; and Andy
Draheim, Senior Policy Analyst; Common Cause, USA
- Raúl Echeberría, Instituto Nacional de Investigatión Agropecuaria, Uruguay
- Clement Dzidonu, President and CEO, International Institute for
Information Technology (INIIT), Ghana
- Stefaan Verhulst, Director, Programme in Comparative Media Law and
Policy, Oxford University, UK
- Myungkoo Kang, Department of Communication, Seoul National
University, Seoul, South Korea
- Jeanette Hofmann, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin/NEXUS, Germany
I am attaching a copy of our letter to ICANN Study Committee Chair
Carl Bildt, transmitted to him on February 7, 2001. A copy of the
letter is also available at:
http://www.cdt.org/dns/icann/nais/010207bildt.shtml
An overview of the NAIS team and its study project is available at:
http://www.cdt.org/dns/icann/nais/010207overview.shtml
Please feel free to contact me if you have any inquiries or thoughts
regarding either of these documents, or the NAIS effort itself.
Rob Courtney
Policy Analyst
Center for Democracy & Technology
* * *
February 7, 2001
Mr. Carl Bildt
Chair
At-Large Membership Study Committee
Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
Dear Mr. Bildt:
Congratulations on being selected to lead the At-Large Membership
Study Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN): a challenging task as ICANN's activities can have a
substantial impact on the development and growth of the Internet
community. The At-Large Membership Study Committee's vital function
will be to review that impact in light of the public representation
currently offered in ICANN and to propose new directions for 2001.
In furtherance of the Study Committee's work, we offer several
suggestions for your consideration as the Committee begins its task.
When the ICANN Board created the At-Large Membership Study Committee,
it anticipated that the findings and recommendations of independent
study groups working outside of ICANN's formal process would
substantially inform the Committee's work. The undersigned
individuals and organizations constitute one such study team.
The "NGO and Academic ICANN Study," or NAIS, is an international
group of scholars and representatives of the public interest
community, all of whom have been involved in ICANN and Internet
issues on an ongoing basis. A description of the group and a list of
its participants are attached to this letter.
NAIS will undertake a comprehensive study of the recent ICANN
election, the concept of the At-Large membership, and the nature of
public representation for the ICANN Board of Directors as a whole.
We look forward to working with the ICANN Study Committee, and hope
that the Committee will find our work useful as it considers its own
recommendations.
Among other initiatives, NAIS is planning to sponsor a public forum
on issues related to the study in conjunction with the upcoming
Melbourne meeting. We hope to organize a number of presentations as a
means of beginning an open dialogue with the ICANN community on the
successes and failures of the recent election, and the options for
the future. We would very much like to work with the Study Committee
in planning this session to ensure that it is successful and
productive.
As you know, one hallmark of any good research project is access to
the best possible data. In the case of the At-Large study, much of
the information about what happened, and why, resides in the
expertise of the individuals who planned and implemented last year's
election. But a great deal of equally important data resides in the
internal records of ICANN and of its election administrator,
election.com.
We hope that ICANN and its Study Committee will make all of this
election data available not only to the undersigned researchers, but
to other research efforts as well. The ICANN Board decided that this
study process should be conducted by self-organizing groups of the
ICANN community. Such studies can be valid only if there is
relatively unfettered access to all relevant data. Without such
access, serious research will not be possible, and the validity and
legitimacy of the outside studies will be compromised. These studies
will then be of less use to the Study Committee, and the whole point
of the Board's decision to rely on such outside efforts will be
defeated.
In other words, we suggest that a primary purpose of the Study
Committee may be to facilitate the efforts by outside,
self-organizing study groups such as ourselves to gain access to all
relevant data. As such, the Study Committee might work to ensure the
cooperation of ICANN in providing access to data, documents and key
personnel to outside study groups. In addition, there is substantial
work to be done to ensure that personally-identifiable information is
removed from the released data, so as to preserve ICANN's commitment
to protecting the privacy of voters.
We attach to this letter a list of the categories of data and
documents to which we request access as an initial matter. We would
be pleased to cooperate with you, and with ICANN's staff, to ensure
that access granted us would cause a minimal disruption to the Study
Committee's important work. To the extent possible, we additionally
suggest that you consider making this data available by posting it on
the Internet, or providing controlled access via the Internet to all
self-organized study groups.
By providing this access, the Study Committee and ICANN can
demonstrate their commitment to complete and valid outside study
efforts, and encourage a better understanding of the successes,
shortcomings, and unanswered questions in last year's election.
The time allotted for reviewing the election is short, and the speedy
release of this data would enable the work of our study team, as well
as others, to get underway. We are anxious to do so. We look forward
to cooperating with you and your Committee on this important project,
and wish you good luck in this important effort you have undertaken.
Sincerely,
The NGO and Academic ICANN Study (NAIS)
(Organizational affiliations are provided below for identification
purposes only)
Izumi Aizu, Principle, Asia Network Research
Jerry Berman, Executive Director; Alan Davidson, Associate Director;
and Rob Courtney, Policy Analyst; Center for Democracy and
Technology, USA
Adam Peake, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Global Communications
(GLOCOM), International University of Japan.
Christian Ahlert, Center for Interactive Media, University of Giessen, Germany
Scott Harshbarger, President; Don Simon, General Counsel; and Andy
Draheim, Senior Policy Analyst; Common Cause, USA
Raúl Echeberría, Instituto Nacional de Investigatión Agropecuaria, Uruguay
Clement Dzidonu, President and CEO, International Institute for
Information Technology (INIIT), Ghana
Stefaan Verhulst, Director, Programme in Comparative Media Law and
Policy, Oxford University, UK
Myungkoo Kang, Department of Communication, Seoul National
University, Seoul, South Korea
Jeanette Hofmann, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin/NEXUS, Germany
cc: Charles Costello
Pindar Wong
Denise Michel
Vinton Cerf
Michael Roberts
Andrew McLaughlin
Louis Touton, Esq.
Enclosures:
Initial List of Data & Documents
Initial List of Data & Documents
--------------------------------
* Server logs. The logs of the systems that ICANN and election.com
used for voter education, registration, activation, and voting
programs contain important information about user access patterns at
various stages of the elections. They will provide clues about system
load and about voter facility with the systems. They may also provide
some limited data on the potential for capture, by indicating whether
substantial numbers of registrations came from one entity or
organization. Personally-identifiable information should be stripped
from this data before its distribution to the public, in order to
preserve ICANN's guarantee of privacy for voters.
* Registration records. Public release of at least some information
collected from users by ICANN's registration and activation servers
would greatly facilitate any election study. Since user participation
in each stage of the membership process- registration, activation,
and voting-dropped off substantially in all regions, these records
should be reviewed. In the interests of privacy,
personally-identifiable information such as e-mail addresses or
mailing addresses should be masked where they appear, but other
identifiers that cannot be reliably tied to real-world identities
should be left intact.
* Mailing records. Failure to receive PIN numbers has been a major
grievance by voters and would-be voters in the election. Review of
ICANN's system for mailing these numbers, as well as other
election-related correspondence (paper and electronic) will help to
understand how such problems could be avoided in the future.
* Voting records. Indications of voter participation, as well as
independent scrutiny of the vote count, are important parts of any
election review. Once again, personally-identifiable information
should be masked to protect the secrecy of the ballot.
* Technical specifications. Both ICANN and election.com experienced
technical difficulties at key moments in the registration and
election processes. Their systems should be reviewed, and the reasons
behind those difficulties understood.
* Financial records. Orchestration of a worldwide election is no
small undertaking, and the cost of an election is of major importance
when considering future efforts to select Directors. ICANN should
publish detailed records of costs and funding sources for the
election.
* Communications. The internal and external communication of ICANN
officers and staff regarding the election will offer important
insights into the way that major decisions were made. The public
record should include the communications of the Election and
Nominating Committees.
--
Rob Courtney
Policy Analyst
Center for Democracy & Technology
1634 Eye Street NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
202 637 9800
fax 202 637 0968
rob@cdt.org
http://www.cdt.org/
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