[governance] .xxx. igc and igf

[Milton Mueller]

>>> Vittorio Bertola <vb at bertola.eu> 4/17/2007 2:02 PM >>>
>I must confess to be somehow lost in your reasoning.

1. >First you complain that the IGF is a forum for advocacy 
>and for discussion only.
2. >Then you complain that ICANN reforms are not on the agenda 
>of the IGF.
3. >And finally you complain about abandoning an "opportunity 
>to attempt to reform ICANN from the IGF" which, if you accept 
>your premise six lines before, does not exist.

I do not see any inconsistency here. I have numbered the allegedly
inconsistent assertions.

1) Yes, IGF is just a forum for advocacy and is nonbinding. This is a
fact, how could I say anything else? But one of the main reasons for
creating it was to provide a place for holistic overview of IG
arrangements, which of course includes ICANN, ergo 2). As for 3), while
of course the IGF cannot "tell ICANN what to do" or force it to reform,
I consider it essential that civil society dialogues about ICANN reform
NOT be restricted to ICANN-created, and ICANN-controlled, venues. We
know that such venues will not be free and independent. Independent
sources of outside pressure have to be used. Of course, I would feel the
same way about any other institution -- do you think all dialogue about
World Bank reform or WIPO reform should only take place within WB or
WIPO, respectively? 

So, there is no inconsistency at all. But I can understand given the
asynchronous, rushed, often imprecise nature of these communications,
why you may have come to that concnlusion.

Now for this:

>Earlier today, you complained that those from civil society who 
>accept serving in positions at ICANN are being "soooooo easily 
>co-opted" just to "feel important". In the meantime, you serve 
>as the Chair of one of the two civil society structures of ICANN.

No one from ICANN asked me or encouraged me to chair the NCUC. Indeed,
ICANN management has no contorl whatsoever over who chairs NCUC. On the
contrary. NCUC was for many years undermined and its legitimacy
assaulted by ICANN higher-ups, PRECISELY BECAUSE it was an independent,
critical force within ICANN. So there is no co-optation. And NCUC does
not make me feel important, it makes me feel tired, most of the time. 

>So I'm not sure about what you are actually meaning, 
>whether according to you it's good or bad for civil society 
>to be engaged in ICANN, and  what would be your practical
> suggestion for a politically feasible process to change 
>ICANN and in what direction.

I think it is very good and very important for civil society to be
engaged in ICANN, and have done as much as anybody to support that goal
for the past 8 years. As you know, some of us have been trying to get a
civil society umbrella arrangement that brings together ALAC and NCUC.
Those two elements of ICANN's structure should be seen as irrelevant
organizatrional structures, not as the basis of CS identity.
Unfortunately most people in ALAC have taken a more parochial
perspective. 

>As for ICANN reforms and the IGF, what I've said is that, 
>given that any reforms of ICANN will have to be approved 
>by the Board of ICANN, it might be more productive to 
>participate in the process that ICANN has set up at its own 
>meetings to discuss its strategic evolution

It is not mutually exclusive. One can and probably should do both. But
one should not rely on the PResident's strategy committee alone, because
that is a hand-picked committee of the President (who, by the way,
excluded civil society almost entirely in his selections). One must
communicate with the PResident's strategy committee, but one must also
have enough political realism to understand that ICANN's management and
its ruling political coalition is going to propose to reform icann only
in ways that serve their own interests. We need to bring pressure to
bear from other directions: governments, business, civil society, media,
etc. 
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