[governance] Reinstate the Vote

[Milton L Mueller]

-----Original Message-----
From: Suresh Ramasubramanian [mailto:suresh at hserus.net] 

>* [ICANN]is already is the province of specialists. 
>And while it does have an open comments mechanism, 
>so far, only the specialists, and specialist lobbyists,
>have enough of a stake, and enough expertise, to make 
>meaningful contributions.

Thanks for the echo, that is precisely what I implied. My point was that
you need a broader accountability than merely open comments. _Your_
point is....?

>* However much of a mess FEMA was, or any other 
>federal agency is, there isnt any way the public 
>can "throw out" the people running that agency -
>those are not elected posts. The one way that is 
>possible is oversight from elected representatives 
>- the senate subcommittees in charge of whatever,
>the secretary of state for whatever, and finally 
>up the chain to the white house. 

Another echo. My point was that without this higher level of
accountability from elected officials public comments and
"participation" would be meaningless. Your point? 

>* So, who do you give oversight over ICANN?  

The global Internet-using public. 

>You are not going to get DoC
>give up its oversight, face it. 

Oh yes, I believe that we will eventually. But even if that goal is not
achieved, it is worthwhile to keep the pressure on it so that the
authority is not abused any more than it has been. 

>And even if you hand it over to the UN,
>what would happen is that broad policy 
>directions get set by the politicians 
>and some UN agency 

Highly revelatory. You've been criticizing IGP papers on this topic but
now I can tell you haven't read any of them. We have consistently
proposed making ICANN accountable to the global public, and not to the
UN or any other intergovernmental agency. We have proposed
de-nationalization, not multi-lateralization. 

Enough said.
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