[governance] Re: Burr & Cade: proposal for introducingmulti-lateral oversight of the root

[Bertrand de La Chapelle]

Dear Lee,

The point I was raising is not the location per se but the nature of the
entity : there is no way today to create a truly international structure,
either for profit or non-profit. And it would make sense to have a global
structure to handle such a global network.

To avoid confusion, let's distinguish clearly betwen the different layers of
issues we are addressing in this important thread :

1) the regimes that should be applied to gTLDs and ccTLDs : similarities and
differences

2) benefits and drawbacks of one root vs several interoperable ones (cf. Joe
Baptista) ?

3) should the same entity(ies) handle both root management and general
policy setting ?

4) the nature of institutions in charge of the respective functions :
national NGO status with host country agreement, intergovernmental
organization, a new, truly international and multi-stakeholder format, other
... ?

5) the origins of legitimacy for the said organization(s) (ie : how they are
created) : MoU with one or several governments, international Treaty,
framework convention, self-established multi-stakeholder Charter  ?

6) the physical location of the offices of these entities : single location
or geographic distribution in multiple regions ? hosting by various entities
(as the W3C) or in their own premisses ?

As for the physical location, Avri is of course right : it should be
only the governance regime/framework that matters, not the location. Still,
the present situation combines : a legitimacy coming from a MoU with a
single government, a legal structure following the laws of a single country
and, for a long time, a location in a single country. The symbolic dimension
cannot be eluded.

Establishing a more distributed international presence (as ICANN initiated
recently with Europe), getting some sort of host country agreement, and
establishing a new charter/framework among more actors than one government
alone are probably elements to consider in moving forward.

This of course does not reduce the pertinence of Milton's remark regarding
accountability : how to guarantee accountability, enforceability and
possibility of appeal at the international level ?

As you mentionned in a separate post, ime may not be ripe yet to revive the
notion of a framework convention, but it would eventually be an appropriate
way to discuss those interlinked issues together.

Best.

Bertrand de La Chapelle


P.S. : as for the IMF and World Bank location in DC, you probably know, Lee,
that the rule is that the headquarters of these institutions are located -
per Charter - in the country that is the largest shareholder (in this case
the US). But, knowing that the shares of all european countries
combined represent more than the US, some actors have suggested in the past
that the european union should pool its seats and ask for the two
institutions to move their headquarters to Europe. It is not likely to
happen for many reasons, as we all know, but the physical location of any
international organization is clearly not neutral.








On 8/1/06, Lee McKnight <LMcKnigh at syr.edu> wrote:
>
> Following this logic, next we suggest the UN leave NYC, and of course
> the World Bank & IMF depart DC.
>
> There, we've solved the world's problems ; (
>
> Lee
>
> Prof. Lee W. McKnight
> School of Information Studies
> Syracuse University
> +1-315-443-6891office
> +1-315-278-4392 mobile
>
> >>> mueller at syr.edu 8/1/2006 10:07 AM >>>
>
> Canada?
>
> >>> bortzmeyer at internatif.org 8/1/2006 8:36:36 AM >>>
> A realistic and short-term solution, which I suggested at the WSIS, is
> simply to host the new structure in an "innocent country", a small and
> quite neutral country which, unlike the USA or China or France, seems
> safe for everyone. Costa-Rica or Finland are two typical examples (and
> they have good Internet connectivity).
>
>
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