[nc-org] Board conflict of interest on .org

["Milton Mueller" <Mueller@syr.edu>]

Those of us who were not in Accra had trouble understanding
what happened to the DNSO policy statement on .org. We were
particularly amazed by how the Board, without any warning
or any supporting public record, reversed position on 
giving .org to a non-profit organization, proposing to allow 
major commercial registries to bid for it.

Now it is possible to understand better what happened.

One of the companies that has been making it clear that
they want to be involved with .org is Neulevel. Before Accra, 
they were making it known that four people were assigned to 
the .org bid full time.

According to the transcript, the Board member who pushed the
Board away from non-profit was Robt. Blokzijl. See the transcript at
http://www.icann.org/accra/captioning-afternoon-14mar02.htm 

And guess what? Mr. Blokzijl has a special relationship to
Neulevel. His wife was hired by Neulevel a few months after 
they were married. Lynn Blokzijl is the Neulevel representative 
in the Netherlands. 

Maybe this is just a coincidence. Maybe Mr. Blokzijl's insistence
that .org be given to a company with "demonstrated experience"
and the Board's subsequent vote to permit commercial applicants
was unrelated to Neulevel's lobbying campaign. Maybe Neulevel's 
hiring of Mrs. Blokzijl had absolutely nothing to do
with the fact that she was married to a Board member. 

Even if this is all "coincidence," it doesn't make ICANN look
very good. Mr Blokzijl had better recuse himself from the .org
redelegation discussion, decision and all other aspects of the 
process.

--MM