[governance] [WSIS CS-Plenary] slight postponementoftoday'scaucus meeting

[Veni Markovski]

At 00:39 24-09-2005 +0900, Izumi AIZU wrote:
>Being involved with ICANN AtLarge from its inception in 1998,
>I would like to counter to what Veni wrote above.  Even if majority
>of the average end users today are not interested in such details as who is
>managing the DNS, IP Address and root servers, that does not mean
>that the work of ICANN as a whole is not of the interest of the end users.

Actually, Izumi, I don't think we have an argument here. It's rather 
an issue of two non-native English speakers writing things:)
What I say is that the work of ICANN is *in* the interest of the 
end-users. But are *they* interested in ICANN's work is a different 
issue. You never call your phone company to say, "Hey, thanks, my 
phone is working". But if it stops working, you call them, and only 
then you think about it (well, besides the phone bill:). So, why 
would users want to know what ICANN is? Actually if they never find 
out that ICANN exists, that would be the best grade for what ICANN's 
doing. I just think ICANN was put on the scene, under the lights, not 
because it watned that.

>This process made several civil society groups dis-interested in participating

Yes, I know. At this time I was also going to ICANN meetings with the NCDNHC.


>not quite. The host kindly invited you to come into the garden,
>enjoy the flowers, but not inside the room where the best dishes
>are there. That is the status of ALAC in summary.

Before I read the last sentence, I was thinking you are talking about 
the civil society and the WSIS. But, let's try to figure out how to 
better involve all users.

>So, does ICANN need direct users involvement in its policy development
>process or not? That is the core question, and if not, then I guess
>many governments will start to intervene more on behalf of the public
>they reprsent. I prefer direct participation than government dectation.

I can't talk on behalf of ICANN, but as a plain user, I'd say that 
ICANN must have both! Direct users involvement in the policy 
development and governmental participation; how to make it happen is 
the challange.
The easiest thing is to say, "let the governments take it over, yet - 
they are chosen by the people".

veni 

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