[governance] ICANN ads for "general public" (new subject header)

[Dan Krimm]

At 1:22 PM +0530 9/10/07, Parminder wrote:
>
>> If ICANN continues to present itself as the "merely technical"
>> organization
>> that it *should* be (as opposed to the more general public policy
>> organization that it increasingly *is*, as reflected in its tangible
>> policy
>> ambitions) I predict you would get a much different response.  ........
>>(snip)
>>
>> The core problem is that the official line ("we are only technical") is
>> not
>> of interest to the general public, but the reality (*we make policy of a
>> more general nature*) is of much greater interest to the general public.
>>
>> If ICANN were honest in explicitly describing the full range of public
>> policy that is deliberated under its roof, I predict it would get much
>> more
>> attention from the general public.  In a strange way I suspect that ICANN
>> doesn't really want that attention, but if I am wrong and indeed it does
>> want that attention it has not been able to get past its erroneous self
>> image to present itself properly to the general public in order to get
>> that
>> attention.
>>
>> This is basically a matter of institutional self-denial, either
>> intentional
>> or accidental, that must be clarified in order to attract proper public
>> input into policy making that the general public is increasingly
>> interested
>> in.
>
>Thanks Dan for an excellent exposition of what you rightly describe as the
>'core problem'. I will like to recommend you for the CIRs main session to
>just put forward this simple and clear formulation of the main issue or
>problem around CIR governance.


Unfortunately I will not be present at IGF, as I do not have the resources
to attend out of pocket and I have no other resources to support such a
trip.

Also, while I currently do not have a paid position, I am actively looking
and may be lucky enough to land something soon, which may not allow me to
attend in an official capacity (not everything I'm looking at is directly
related to Internet governance).  I'm not even certain that I can allocate
the time to get to Los Angeles for ICANN, though I could drive there in a
day.  If I'm still out of work I suppose I'll be able to make it, but if
employed there's no guarantee.

I am on this list mainly because I am deeply interested in the issues
generally and because I specifically did some pro bono work for NCUC while
looking for paid work, but I am not a formal participant in IGC at this
time.  (I became aware of the list when I worked for CPSR for a few months
last fall/winter, but I no longer work there.)

Please feel free to use any ideas of mine in any way that seems useful, I'm
not enforcing any copyright privileges on this list.  Consider my comments
here dedicated to the public domain.  :-)

Dan
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