Return-Path: <sentto-279987-1668-999161744-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.1.0) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Thu, 30 Aug 2001 01:57:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 18795 invoked by uid 510); 30 Aug 2001 08:56:08 -0000 Received: from n22.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.72) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 30 Aug 2001 08:56:08 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-1668-999161744-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.4.55] by cj.egroups.com with NNFMP; 30 Aug 2001 08:55:45 -0000 X-Sender: fc@big.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_3_2); 30 Aug 2001 08:55:43 -0000 Received: (qmail 93471 invoked from network); 30 Aug 2001 08:55:43 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by l9.egroups.com with QMQP; 30 Aug 2001 08:55:43 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO big.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta3 with SMTP; 30 Aug 2001 08:55:43 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by big.all.net (8.9.3/8.7.3) id BAA03339 for iwar@onelist.com; Thu, 30 Aug 2001 01:55:42 -0700 Message-Id: <200108300855.BAA03339@big.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL1] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 01:55:42 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] ICANN Board Member Blasts Governance Study Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ICANN Board Member Blasts Governance Study By David McGuire, Newsbytes.com Wednesday, August 29, 2001; 5:41 PM Arguing that a proposal pending before the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) would effectively prevent ordinary Internet users from having a meaningful say in Web governance, one ICANN board member today vowed to oppose the plan. "I'm going to vote against it," Karl Auerbach, an ICANN director (and longtime ICANN critic) said today of the ICANN At-Large Study Committee's final report, a draft version of which was released on Tuesday. "I think ICANN is dead as a public interest entity" if the report is approved Auerbach said. "It's already a laughingstock." The study committee was created by ICANN - the body that manages the worldwide Internet addressing system - to determine how and whether ordinary Internet users should be allowed to participate in the ICANN governance process. In its draft report, the committee recommends that the Internet user community be given its own "supporting organization" within ICANN. The report further recommends that the user community be allowed to determine the makeup of one-third of the ICANN board of directors, which has the final say on all ICANN decisions. By ensuring that members of the public cannot form an effective voting bloc within the ICANN board, the report is endorsing the creation of a purely "decorative" at-large membership, Auerbach contended. "I was expecting something much better out of this committee," he added. But Denise Michel, the executive director of the At-Large Study Committee, today argued that the report is "balanced and fair." She added that the committee is looking forward to incorporating public input into the final version of its report, due out later this year. "The Committee is very much looking forward to discussing the report with Karl," Michel said. Michel and other committee members will present the findings of the report when the ICANN board convenes next month in Montevideo, Uruguay. Under ICANN's existing bylaws, the board is supposed to comprise nine internally selected members representing Internet "stakeholders" and nine at-large members representing the online public. While the nine internal members have been in place for some time, only five at-large members - of which Auerbach is one - have been elected to represent the Internet public. Whether ICANN will fill the remaining board seats will depend largely on whether the board decides to accept the recommendations contained in the at-large study. Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) Associate Director Alan Davidson, who has been monitoring the progress of the study committee, was less critical than Auerbach of the at-large report, but shared many of Auerbach's concerns about the report's recommendations. Davidson called the study "a very useful contribution to the debate," but said that - as is - the report fails to provide a structure that allows for adequate public participation in ICANN governance. "This is not yet a recipe for real legitimacy for ICANN," Davidson said. CDT is one of a handful of groups involved in the NAIS (NGO & Academic ICANN Study) Project - which commenced its own study to mirror that of the ICANN at-large committee. That group will release its findings on Friday, Davidson said. Like Auerbach, Davidson said he was concerned that the at-large report recommended that users control only one-third of the board. Because the board can approve changes to ICANN bylaws with a two-thirds majority, public interest leaders have argued that Internet users should control - at the least - slightly more than one-third of the board seats, Davidson said. Davidson and Auerbach also raised concerns about the report's definition of Internet "users." When ICANN held its first-ever at-large election last year, anyone above the age of 16 with a valid e-mail address could vote in the board elections. Under the proposals drafted by the study committee, the at-large membership in the future would be restricted to Internet address holders. Internet users who do not own domain names would be barred from running or voting in the board elections. "There are a lot of questions about whether domain-name holders as a class are really representative" of the user community Davidson said. Davidson added that the cost of maintaining a valid domain name could effectively prevent people living in poorer regions of the world from participating in the governance process. The at-large report also proposes the creation of an at-large membership fee, which Auerbach said would amount to a "poll tax." ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Secure your servers with 128-bit SSL encryption! Grab your copy of VeriSign's FREE Guide: "Securing Your Web Site for Business." Get it Now! http://us.click.yahoo.com/n7RbFC/zhwCAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! 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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-09-29 21:08:40 PDT