[ga] Re: A Question for the Candidates

[Barbara Simons <simons@acm.org>]

If I am elected to the ICANN Board, I shall work at making the Board and its
decision making process more open, responsible, and transparent.  In
particular, I pledge to:

    * Be accessible and responsive to the members of the public;
    * Create an advisory group of experts in technological, policy,
economics, and the law;
    * Work to build a decision-making process that is open and inclusive -
and that involves two-way communications from the Board to the public and
from the public to the Board;
    * Establish well defined procedures that will allow sufficient time for
people to read and comment on issues, proposals, and initiatives;
    * Guarantee that policy decisions are initiated and made by the Board,
not by the staff.

One of the aspects of having well defined procedures is that issues would
not be voted on without first providing the public with reasonable notice
and the opportunity to comment.  Votes would be made in public and the
results, together with how the individual Board members voted, would be
posted in a prominent location on the ICANN website.

I am uncomfortable with the idea of requiring that all email among Board
members be made public.  I think that such a step would inhibit the give and
take that is required in order for a body to reach a negotiated decision.
Based on my experiences of working with a group with a variety of opinions
(the U.S. Public Policy Committee of ACM), I have found that I frequently
need to engage in side email conversations with individuals in order to
determine both what their primary concerns are and what kind of compromise
might allow them to support a particular position.  These would be very
awkward discussions to have in public, and I believe that my effectiveness
would be reduced were I required to archive such discussions.

Regards,
Barbara

On 3/5/03 10:44 PM, "DannyYounger@cs.com" <DannyYounger@cs.com> wrote:

> We now have the following individuals nominated to fill ICANN Board Seat #14:
> 
> Barbara Simons
> Alejandro Pisanty
> Philip Sheppard
> Michael Palage
> Jonathan Cohen
> Susan Crawford
> 
> I would like to hear the views of these candidates, so I will pose this
> following preliminary question to prompt some initial discussion:
> 
> Our bylaws state:  "ICANN and its constituent bodies shall operate to the
> maximum extent feasible in an open and transparent manner and consistent with
> procedures designed to ensure fairness."  We are aware that the Board and
> certain constituencies do not publicly archive their discussion lists... in
> your view, does this comport with the bylaws requirement on transparency?

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