Request for Accountability and Transparency in ICANN Noncommercial Group Charter

[Laura DeNardis <laura.denardis@xxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN:

My name is Laura DeNardis, Executive Director of the Yale Information 
Society Project, an intellectual center at Yale Law School which 
examines the implications of the Internet for law and society.  I wish 
to express my concern that the Noncommercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) 
charter developed by civil society has been supplanted by a top-down 
charter prepared by ICANN staff members.  The originally proposed 
charter was spearheaded by well-respected Internet governance 
stakeholders from civil society in a lengthy, grassroots process with 
significant global public input. 

Furthermore, and whether or not this was ICANN's intention, allowing a 
public comment period on the ICANN staff-developed charter is being 
construed as an attempt to paint a veneer of legitimacy and grassroots 
participation on a fundamentally non-democratic document.  This same 
type of top-down tactic has appeared many times in the history of the 
Internet and, with the world watching, has almost always failed. 

ICANN has sought to reflect democratic values such as accountability, 
transparency, and grassroots participation.  Whatever has transpired to 
reach this point on the NCSG charter, I urge ICANN to consider the 
following four actions:
1. (Legitimacy) Withdraw the staff-prepared charter
2. (Grassroots process) Reinstate the charter developed over a lengthy 
grassroots process by civil society
3. (Accountability) Submit this legitimate charter for further public 
comment
4. (Transparency) Provide to the public some explanation of how the 
civil society charter came to be supplanted and ask those who influenced 
this decision to come forward and make public their concerns. 

It's the 21st century. Noncommercial Internet users simply must have a 
voice in ICANN policy-making.
Respectfully submitted, Dr. Laura DeNardis

--
Dr. Laura DeNardis
Executive Director
Yale Information Society Project
Lecturer in Law
Yale Law School
127 Wall Street
New Haven CT 06511