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Re: [alac] WSIS agenda
- To: Bret Fausett <bfausett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, alac@xxxxxxxxx
- Subject: Re: [alac] WSIS agenda
- From: Erick Iriarte Ahon <faia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 18:29:41 -0500
Hi to alla
The Peruvian statement in the WSIS is in this way:
"En torno a la Gobernanza de Internet, los
acuerdos a los que se arribo, nos abren un nuevo
mundo. Un mundo donde esta claro que el Internet
como insumo para el desarrollo ha sobrepasado las
fronteras nacionales, y que las soluciones para
los debates sobre Internet, estan en el
desarrollo de políticas y regulaciones
armonizadas globalmente. Se abre un mundo para el
ICANN, que tiene en esta oportunidad un tiempo
para acercarse a los realmente afectados por los
temas de Internet en su parte técnica, es decir
todos los stakeholders. Sobre el ICANN no tenemos
duda de la transparencia, los espacios
democráticos y que sea multi-stakeholder, pero
deberá trabajar mas con la comunicación de sus
decisiones, en los mecanismos de consulta y de
participación real y efectiva, así como
el trabajo de acuerdo con los Estados. Se abre
un mundo para la sociedad civil no tecnológica,
es decir aquellos que no siendo del área
tecnológica sin embargo tienen relevancia en
temas de Internet Governance, puesto que su voz
también es necesaria. Y finalmente se abre una
oportunidad para todos los actores involucrados,
puesto que han demostrado que el desarrollo de
políticas globales, regionales y nacionales, se
tiene que desarrollar desde una perspectiva
inclusiva, incluyente, democrática, transparente
y multi-stakeholder, y que su voz no solo tiene
que ser escuchada sino atendida.."
Erick
At 11:17 a.m. 18/11/2005, Bret Fausett wrote:
The easy part is calling ICANN a failure. The
hard part (and the part you signed-up for as an
ALAC member) is articulating, and getting
community buy-in, for what a successful (or
"competent") ICANN looks like/does (especially
from a Net user perspective) and suggesting
specific actions that At-Large and ICANN should take.
The list of specific actions for ICANN to take
is a long one. But -- and I'm probably
channeling Wendy here -- the actions that ICANN
will actually take has no overlap with the list
of actions that we would advocate. It's been
refreshing to see Avri on the GNSO Council, as
she is asking questions and advocating changes
that I long ago abandoned as hopeless causes.
Among the "hopeless cause" specific actions we
might resurrect and advocate are:
1. Hiring a "Manager of Public Participation"
(see the ALAC Statement in Mar del Plata). This
was a key staff position proposed by the ICANN
Reform effort in 2002, which current ICANN
management has never seen fit to fill. While
ICANN seems to have no problem hiring water boys
for senior staff -- you know, the 'Executive
Assistants' and 'Vice-Policy Managers' and
'Associate Counsels' -- it can't bother to hire
someone who actually would represent the
interests of end-users. I'm not talking here
about the advertised position of 'Vice-President
for Outreach,' who will work under the direction
of the 'General Manager for Global
Partnerships,' but someone who will ensure that
user input into ICANN doesn't end up unheard.
2. Increased Transparency for ICANN Staff.
ICANN has never truly embraced "openness and
transparency," in spite of the fact that these
requirements are laced through its bylaws. In
1998, when ICANN was just beginning, someone
proposed a truly brilliant idea, with an analog
in U.S. administrative processes. To increase
transparency, ICANN would require that any ICANN
community member who had (a) an ex parte contact
(defined as any contact that was not in an open,
public forum) with (b) an ICANN Board member or
ICANN staffer about (c) a matter of policy (as
opposed to social contacts or administrative
minutiae) to (d) summarize the meeting,
including date, time, length, persons attending,
and subjects discussed, and post it to a public
web archive within 5 business days after the
meeting. If the summary was inaccurate, ICANN
could post a response. Imagine all of the
problems that ICANN could have avoided over the
years if people actually knew what was happening down in Marina del Rey.
3. Increased Transparency for the ICANN Board.
The ICANN Board now meets roughly 80% of the
time in private, closed, secret session. In the
early days of ICANN, the balance was the
opposite. I also understand that the infamous
"Board list" -- the Board's working mailing list
-- has over 4000 messages a year, none of them
publicly readable or archived. Imagine all of
the problems that ICANN could have avoided over
the years if people actually knew what was
happening in the Board's discussions.
The easy part is calling these specific
suggestions about process "navel-gazing"
(Esther's term, once upon a time). They have
important ramifications for policy though.
Here's an example: The 2001 .COM Agreement
states that Verisign must propose a renewal of
the .COM agreement at some time between November
10, 2005 and May 10, 2006. ICANN then will have
six months to review the proposal and decide
whether to accept it. (see our ICANN Wiki page
for the links to the actual provisions.) That's
what the public documents say. What really
happened was that Verisign and/or ICANN proposed
a renewal of .COM out of sync with the public,
contractual provisions, at least ten months
before the process was to start. If that weren't
bad enough, ICANN then asked the community to
comment on the "deal" in a matter of days,
rather than in the "six month" consideration
window required by the current contract. When
the greater community doesn't see something like
.COM renegotiation coming ("no transparency"),
it impacts our ability to comment upon and influence the outcome.
Bret
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