Re: [gnso-consensus-wg] Nom Comm appointee roles

[Avri Doria <avri@xxxxxxx>]

On 14 Jul 2008, at 00:03, Milton L Mueller wrote:

> So you still haven't explained why Councilors selected by Nomcom are
> qualitatively different than those selected by a constituency
> membership.
I thought the note I attached from Olga gave a good clue.

> If a bunch of business, technical and noncommercial delegates have to
> agree on appointments via the Nomcom, isn't it likely that they will
> select a series of appointees who are balanced across business and
> noncommercial perspectives? If so, how is that different from adding
> another seat to the Commercial and Noncommercial SG?

First I would think it obvious that anyone selected by consensus by  
all the constituencies and others (such as the advisory groups) would  
be different then someone who was beholden to just one of the  
constituencies.  To find people that a nomcom can reach consensus on  
requires that they not be characteristically of the type of any of the  
constituencies but that they be somewhat different.
Other thoughts:

- they tend to be selected not from people who are active in ICANN,  
but rather from people who are outside the system.    E.g. before  
being considered by the Nomcom I had only been to a single ICANN  
meeting and that was as an observer from WGIG to view its  
multistakeholder processes.  While this is not true of all Nomcom  
picks it is of many.  Yes, they are picked by insiders, but they are  
picked, often, for their outsider qualities.
- the SO gives technical specification of what they think the council  
can use in terms of skill sets that happen to be missing from the  
natural selection process by constituencies.
- the Nomcom takes gender and regional issues into account and tries  
to establish some balance.
The nomcom provides a way for some group of people, yes mostly ICANN  
insiders, to try and take a global look at the council and to figure  
out what is missing and what could strengthen the council
There is nothing special or mystical about nomcom appointee.  We are  
people like the rest with varied aspects, some good some less so.   
What makes us different are the criteria used for picking us.
I also believe that it is a fallacy to argue that insiders can only  
pick insiders and I never argued that insiders could only pick  
insiders, that is your argument.  And I think that this fallacy is  
shown by the mix of people nomcoms have picked over the years - very  
few start out as insiders, and while some end up as insiders after  
years of service, many do not and do leave the organization once their  
service is done.
a.