I'm delighted to see that so fundamental a part of the Internet as numbering has
been opened to public participation. The ICANN is to be congratulated.I'm participating
as vice chair of the communications committee of Community Board 3Q, of the city
of New York. Our community of 150,000 has a vital interest in the Internet's development.
At this beginning of the Ad Hoc Group's operation I'd like to pose several questions
and make a few suggestions:
1. Legitimacy - Broader participation in the Ad Hoc
Group is essential. As currently configured it appears to only represent the interests
of business. While the ICANN board will eventually have public members, it is advisable
that the public participate at all levels of the Internet's development. Therefore
I suggest you seek out other legitimately interested parties to participate in this
Ad Hoc Group. Without bottom up participation by the public, local non profit institutions,
schools, religious institutions, small businesses, etc., the Ad Hoc Group's conclusions
with regard to broad public interests will be suspect (and possibly erroneous).
2.
Governance - I'd suggest adding 9 public members to the Editorial Group, as that
appears to the Ad Hoc Group's governance unit.
3. Background Information
- As the public members will not be well versed in the technical details, their participation
adds a level of complexity to the Group's operation. I suggest adding a library of
fundamental technical and consumer orientation documents to http://www.icann.org/mbx/adhoc/.
4. Coordination Facilities - I suggest the group use simpler and more robust
working tools like those offered by grassroots.com.
5. Timetable - Considering
the late start, what is the current timetable?
In conclusion, I'd like to note
that public participation of this sort will surely slow the Group's decision making
process down to a crawl, for the short run. But the long term development and integration
of appropriate technology into multiple levels of society, the reduction of obsolescence,
and reduced resource consumption will advantage all.
Thank you for your attention
to these matters.
Sincerely,
Thomas Lowenhaupt