<html><head></head><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>Dear Milton, </div><div><br></div><div>You share a very important pair of perspectives. This dual meaning that arises from ICANN and you raises another issue in light of Fadi's strategy panels idea that these panels become an obstacle between ICANN and it's community. Is this a third perspective in your view that will live or outlive ICANN in parallel to its existing notion of the membership?<br><br><div>Best Regards</div><div>Fouad Bajwa</div><div><br></div>Sent from my mobile device</div><div><br>On Oct 20, 2013, at 12:14 AM, Milton L Mueller <<a href="mailto:mueller@syr.edu">mueller@syr.edu</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<div style="direction: ltr;font-family: Tahoma;color: #000000;font-size: 10pt;">
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The idea that the Affirmation of Commitments should be a contract between ICANN and the people raises very interesting questions. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<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>
<div><br>
</div>
<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>
<div><br>
</div>
<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>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<br>
<div style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #000000; font-size: 16px">
<hr tabindex="-1">
<div id="divRpF236123" style="direction: ltr;">-------- Original Message --------</div>
<div>
<div class="moz-forward-container">
<table class="moz-email-headers-table" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<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>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Thu, 17 Oct 2013 20:16:00 +0530</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<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>
</tr>
<tr>
<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>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<br>
<div dir="ltr">Dear all,
<div><br>
</div>
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):
<div>
<ul>
<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.
</li></ul>
<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>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Regards,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Vinay Kesari</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a href="https://twitter.com/vinaykesari" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/vinaykesari</a><br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
</div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>____________________________________________________________</span><br><span>You received this message as a subscriber on the list:</span><br><span> <a href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</a></span><br><span>To be removed from the list, visit:</span><br><span> <a href="http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing">http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing</a></span><br><span></span><br><span>For all other list information and functions, see:</span><br><span> <a href="http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance">http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance</a></span><br><span>To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:</span><br><span> <a href="http://www.igcaucus.org/">http://www.igcaucus.org/</a></span><br><span></span><br><span>Translate this email: <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate_t">http://translate.google.com/translate_t</a></span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>