NCUC

[DeeDee Halleck <dhalleck@xxxxxxxx>]

Statement of the Deep Dish Network to ICANN,

Deep Dish Network is a grassroots network of producers, media  
activists and community television administrators.  For 23 years, we  
have provided a base for collaboration and cooperation between media  
producers and over 300 community television channels across the  
United States.      We assemble material from producers around the  
world and transmit it to community television stations and home dish  
owners nationwide. Where commercial networks present a homogenous and  
one-dimensional view of society, Deep Dish thrives on diversity.   
Instead of television that encourages passivity, Deep Dish  
distributes creative programming that educates and activates.
There are hundreds of grass roots organizations that use Deep Dish  
programs in local organizing for development.  Deep Dish has become a  
global model for community use of  appropriate technology  for human  
communication to counter global systems of corporate culture that  
squeeze out local talent and local concerns.  South Africa, India and  
Brazil are some of the places where Deep Dish has been seen as an  
example of grass roots media that preserves and promotes indigenous  
and minority expression. Over a thousand programs have been produced  
by Deep Dish and transmitted via satellite to community media  
channels in the United States.  Deep Dish has produced series on war  
and violence, racism, the environment, prisons, health care and many  
other issues.
Deep Dish is exactly the sort of non-profit communication  
organization that needs representation at ICANN.  The  Non-Commercial  
Users Constituency (NCUC), the organization that represents non- 
commercial interests and advocates for the protection of digital  
rights including free expression, privacy, due process of law and  
other non-commercial interests in ICANN-GNSO policy discussions.
Deep Dish supports the NCUC’s NCSG petition because it will create an  
organizational structure that can accommodate the full breadth and  
diversity of non-commercial interests concerned with domain name  
policy.  The NCSG petition encourages inclusiveness and cooperation  
among differing viewpoints, facilitates minority representation,  
fosters the generation of new policy proposals, and establishes  
councilors and officers that are representative of and serve the  
needs of the entire Stakeholder Group (SG) membership.  The NCSG  
petition also maintains a light-weight and adaptable framework as is  
required for effective policy development at ICANN.  In contrast, SG  
petitions that attempt to fix a pre-determined number of GNSO Council  
seats per constituency are inadequate at representing the great  
diversity of non-commercial interests at ICANN.
A constituency-based representation model encourages competition and  
divisiveness among constituencies in the NCSG by setting up a zero- 
sum game in which constituencies fight in internal power struggles  
and over scarce resources.  Such a model cannot be a long-term  
solution and requires constant re-negotiation over limited council  
seats every time a new constituency is approved, tying up scarce NCSG  
resources and energy with internal disputes rather than shared  
goals.  A constituency-based representation model at the GNSO  
presents an invitation to gaming with arbitrary groupings into  
imposed constituencies.  Instead of a system for developing the best  
policies that can reach the broadest acceptance in the SG, such a  
model encourages special-interest groups to consider
only their own particular narrow agendas.  It would encourage  
fragmentation among non-commercial interests with an incentive of  
gaining more power on the GNSO Council than may reflect actual  
support in the broader community.  Under constituency-based  
representation models, a constituency of 20 narrowly focused  
individuals is entitled to the same representation on the GNSO  
Council as a constituency of 2,000 members.  While competition can be  
a valuable tool in some cases, the new GNSO model is intended to work  
through consensus building, compromise, and cooperation among  
competing viewpoints.
We believe the NCUC NCSG Charter recognizes the problems of  
constituency-based representation and has addressed them through  
democratic SG-wide elections for GNSO Councilors, balanced with a low  
threshold for recommending the creation of Working Groups to generate  
policy proposals.  Other GNSO Stake-holder Groups have also  
recognized the problems of a constituency-
based model and proposed solutions similar to NCUC’s petition of  
democratic SG-wide elections for GNSO Council seats.   NCUC’s NCSG  
petition provides a long-term solution that minimizes competition and  
rewards consensus-building and cooperation among constituencies.  For  
the GNSO Councilor to win her seat she must gain the support of  
various constituencies within the NCSG membership.  The NCSG will be  
much more effective as an SG with GNSO Councilors who understand the  
breadth of ICANN policy
issues -- rather than only the issues that touch their particular  
constituency’s “pet agenda” (or “raison d'être”).
The NCUC proposal accommodates the diversity of non-commercial  
interests and encourages GNSO Councilors to be broadly representative  
of the entire NCSG membership, while still enfranchising minority  
viewpoints and fostering a more inclusive policy agenda.  For these  
reasons Deep Dish Network supports the proposed NCUC NCSG Charter and  
ask the ICANN Board of Directors to encourage wider non-commercial  
civil society participation at ICANN by doing the same.  Thank you.
Respectfully Submitted,

DeeDee Halleck
Development Director
Deep Dish Network
339 Lafayette Street
NY NY 10012
212 473 8933