[governance] oversight

[Milton Mueller]

Avri:

>>> Avri Doria <avri at acm.org> 10/25/2005 11:14 AM >>>
>What i contend is that the dichotomy between US or all nations 
>for oversight is the wrong issue. I don't think there should be 
>political  oversight and I believe that the original intention of the

>MOU was to eventually evolve to a point where there would no 
>longer be political oversight. And that is what I believe the goal 
>should remain.

I am comfortable with that conclusion, as you should know by now. But I
insist on offering four cautions:

1) "Oversight" means different things to different people. I would hope
that you could mount better arguments exaplining why _as a matter of
principle_ or _as a rule_ governments should not be involved.  

2) Cutting off ICANN from any external accountability is not the
answer. Even your own proposal calls for some forms of external
accountability/oversight, as well as extensive internal reforms. 

3) Don't forget the GAC. US will respond - and in fact, is responding -
to pressure on ICANN by moving for a stronger role for GAC. GAC is just
a collection of governments. So when you call for working within ICANN,
are you leading us into another system dominated by govts? 

4) ICANN is a creature of the USG. As someone who has been there from
the beginning, there is no doubt in my mind that the current oversight
and governance structure of ICANN biases policy making processes towards
policy outcomes desired by the USG, in some cases for better, in some
cases for worse. Since strong US political oversight has existed since
the beginning of ICANN, it is by no means clear how ICANN will behave
once it is gone. Add to that the calculus associated with issue #3
above, and perhaps you can see why, though thinking along similar lines,
I feel less enthusiastic than you about "no oversight."

>In other words, I believe Civil Society should not spend its energy  
>arguing for multilateral oversight, but rather should be arguing for 


Perhaps I have not been paying attention, but who among CS has been
spending a lot of energy arguing for multilateral oversight? 


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