[ga] Karl's latest posting

["Joe Sims" <jsims@JonesDay.com>]

Karl's latest posting contains his usual careless reasoning.

He says that the Internet user community is not present in either ICANN or
the ITU.  Of course, he means by "internet user community" only that
portion that does not include those segments of the community that he
constantly ignores -- providers, industry, education, non-commercial orgs.
In other words, the portion that is not present, according to Karl, is
individuals acting as individuals.  This may or may not be correct -- it
depends on whether you accept his nonsensical comparison of the various
ways for individuals to express their views in ICANN to village soviets --
but it certainly is not the case that the "internet user community" is not
present in both organizations.  It certainly is present in both, although
more visibly and with more authority in ICANN.

Then he asserts that, since the government role is larger in the ITU than
in ICANN, the ITU would be the preferred forum for the "internet user
community" as he defines it because the governmental role is (1) less
diluted and (2) more formalized in the ITU than in ICANN.  The first point
is probably correct; governments absolutely control ITU decisions and only
exercise significant influence on ICANN decisions.  However, many people
(including large portions of the actual "internet user community," in
contrast to the one Karl sees) think this is a comparative advantage of
ICANN.  The second point is utter nonsense, and demonstrates a pretty
critical lack of understanding of how governments work.  Does Karl actually
believe that Nancy Victory is not "clearly credentialed" by the US
government when she sits at the GAC?  Or that Sharil Tarmizi, the current
Chair of the GAC, is not a legitimate government representative?  How does
Karl think that governmental delegates to the ITU get selected, and exactly
how does he think that differs from the selection process for GAC
representatives?  Does Karl believe that he can exercise more influence
over Nancy Victory in her activities at the ITU, or of the representative
from the State Department who is the US delegate to certain ITU fora, than
he can with respect to the US's activities at ICANN?   I suspect that
Karl's real problem is that he does not seem to be able to influence
anyone, including governmental representatives, but I do not think that is
a function of the forum.








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