[governance] RE: [NA-Discuss] ALAC and NCUC

[Karl Auerbach]

Michael Gurstein wrote:

> I don't mean to be a pest about this but has there been any "official"
> interpretation on what precisely is meant by the term "individual
> Internet user" as below...

I use a simple formulation - the community of internet users is composed 
of all natural people who are affected by the internet.

That formulation encompasses precisely those people who have a "stake" 
in the functioning of the internet.

Personally, I feel that alternative formulations that look to whether a 
person has acquired a domain name or has an email address are too 
constrained.  A person who has no email but uses VOIP is just as 
affected by the internet as a person who has a domain name.  A person 
who has none of these but is undergoing a medical examination via the 
net is equally affected by the behaviour of the internet.

Now, I'd anticipate a further point - systems that create layers upon 
layers of intermediaries, such as ICANN's ALAC, between seats from which 
decisions are actually made and the individuals who compose the internet 
community are systems that are more facade than substance.

Representative systems are OK, but the number of layers between the 
individual and the decision makers ought not to exceed one intermediary 
level.  Moreover, mechanisms that dilute the link between individuals 
and the decision makers, mechanisms such as nominating committees, 
should also be avoided because they are relics of paternalistic, 
top-down, "we know better than they do what is good for them" mentalities.

In other words do we want internet governance to resemble a modern 
liberal democratic system or a re-enactment of some 1880's colonial 
imposition?

		--karl--

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