[governance] accountability

Jeanette Hofmann jeanette at wz-berlin.de
Thu Sep 29 05:54:26 EDT 2005



Milton Mueller wrote:

> 
>>the fundamental problem on the table, greater accountability 
>>to governments with respect to ICANN's core activities.
>>On the one hand, it may be that the majority
>>of us don't think there is a need for such accountability 
> 
> 
> The difference in perspective here is "accountability to whom?" ICANN
> is already completely accountable to one government and the addition of
> more governments per se does not get me excited, it just means
> geopolitical conflict and less clarity about the conditions and criteria
> of accountability. I want more accountability to the PUBLIC, especially
> the Interet using and supplying public. Think of it as an extension of
> the subsidiarity principle: we can interact with ICANN and its
> structures directly. If the structure is more democratized, even more
> so. 
> 
I think it is this aspect where our latest statement leaves a lot to be 
desired. At Bill's panel on the oversight function I mentioned two 
elements of a system of check and balance I could think of: an appeals 
body and the forum as a new public space that might help generating an 
informed public, which goes beyond those few people who are involved in 
ICANN. In my view, this is not good enough. We need a more dense 
structure of accountability. (The RIRS and rootserver operators come to 
mind. They work as peers and thereby create a form of accountability and 
sanity check.)

However, as people here say, it is too early to work on the details of 
such a accountability structure. The achievement of the prepcom will be 
a rough consensus on the future direction. The work on the details will 
start in a couple of months. It is not as if we were missing a train here.

I will send the Canadian proposal with my next mail. It is not on the 
ITU server yet.
jeanette
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