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<div>The idea that the Affirmation of Commitments should be a contract between ICANN and the people raises very interesting questions. </div>
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<div>As some have suggested, this could just be rhetorical blather: another way in which ICANN tells us that we can use our voices and express ourselves, but which gives people no hard accountability.</div>
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<div>On the other hand, the idea of a contract between "ICANN and you" could be interpreted as a revival of the notion of _membership_, which was supposed to be the original method of making ICANN democratic and accountable. Members of an organization have
specific rights (as well as specific eligibility criteria) and in a California nonprofit the corporate bylaws spelling out those rights/obligations/eligibility could be considered an enforcable contract between the organization and "you." </div>
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<div>I hope civil society will be savvy enough to revive the notion of membership as an accountability tool, especially when ICANN's own CEO seems to be inviting us to do that.</div>
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<div id="divRpF236123" style="direction: ltr;">-------- Original Message --------</div>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Subject: </th>
<td>[Internet Policy] Fadi Chehadé: Affirmation of Commitments needs to become contract between 'ICANN and you'</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Thu, 17 Oct 2013 20:16:00 +0530</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>Vinay Kesari <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:vinay.kesari@gmail.com" target="_blank">
<vinay.kesari@gmail.com></a></td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:internetpolicy@elists.isoc.org" target="_blank">internetpolicy@elists.isoc.org</a></td>
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<div dir="ltr">Dear all,
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Fadi Chehadé, the CEO of ICANN, spoke this evening at the <a href="http://www.ficci.com/events-page.asp?evid=21654" target="_blank">
Internet, Mobile & Digital Economy Conference (IMDEC) 2013</a> in New Delhi, and made some very interesting statements, including the following (which I paraphrase):
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<li>The Affirmation of Commitments needs to change from being a contract between ICANN and the US Government, to a contract between 'ICANN and you'.
</li><li>The handling of the IANA function needs to be structured in keeping with the idea that it is the 'root of the world' rather than of any one country.
</li><li>ICANN headquarters would be split between Los Angeles, Istanbul and Singapore, and hiring in Los Angeles is to be frozen.
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<div>I will post links to the video from the event as soon as it is up, as well as a more detailed report on his other remarks, including on Brazil, the role of industry, and multilateralism.</div>
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<div>Regards,</div>
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<div>Vinay Kesari</div>
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<div><a href="https://twitter.com/vinaykesari" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/vinaykesari</a><br>
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