[governance] Re: [IGP-ANNOUNCE] IGP Alert: Reforming ICANN

[Parminder]

Bill

Your analysis of the current power structure and their expected stance is
obviously right, and an (or THE) important issue here. No one expects all
these entrenched players to jump to the idea and welcome it with open arms.

But we all realize that we have a major global issue/ problem at hand -
global Internet policy making, and a poor/non-existent institutional
mechanism for it today - and that its solution will be complex, and we can
only move towards it by-and-by...

In these circumstances, such ideas as the present IGP proposal are floated
with the expectation of building some political mass around it, and then it
may/can get used as one possible alternative when the complexity of the
above problem presents itself in stronger
-have-to-do-something-about-it-terms or major players simply get relatively
more well-disposed to the need of solving it in an evolutionary manner. 

Strong early skeptic-ism on such proposals within CS, assuming they are
otherwise a positive development from CS point of view, will not allow even
the shaping of them as one possible alternatives to be considered at some
stage. 

One of such possible stages can be when it becomes no longer possible to
keep avoiding the enhanced cooperation (EC) thing. Though while I myself
hope that this results in a relatively stronger and clearer, as well as MS
and transparent, institutional mechanism, on never knows in which direction
will the negotiations go.... It is entirely possible that under the
political imperative of having something to show against the clear
injunction in TA on EC, like the one on reporting on performance (yes,
towards/on EC, but that can mean many things) developing a structured
reporting arrangement anchored in the IGF may look like a good compromise,
and lets say US, EU, other OECD countries(among your power configuration),
other govs and many elements of CS agree to this arrangement. It may put
pressure on others to cone around...

That's just thinking of one scenario. 

BTW, and we have has this discussion earlier (though inconclusively), you
have been championing the 'assess IG institutions for adherence to WSIS
principles' mandate of IGF. I have never quite understood what exactly are
the kind of processes you envisage and associate with this activity.  Are
these very different in substance from the present IGP proposal. WSIS
principles, and I include in the term 'wsis principles' complete WSIS docs
with all its substantive high level principles expressed in declaration of
principles etc. Assessing adherence to all these principles is a good basis
of soft political oversight of IGF over ICANN. I am sure that in your
advocacy for IGF taking steps towards fulfilling the 'assessing for WSIS
principles' mandate you mean some kind of structured arrangements and some
clear obligation of the implicated institutions to submit to them. If not
so, there is no one and nothing stopping anyone from assessing whatever one
wants to at a workshop at the IGF.

Was just wondering if there may be some space for exploring possibilities of
some degree of common ground on this issue among CS members and groups.

Parminder 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: William Drake [mailto:william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch]
> Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 4:40 PM
> To: Governance
> Subject: Re: [governance] Re: [IGP-ANNOUNCE] IGP Alert: Reforming ICANN
> 
> Hi,
> 
> On 2/9/08 6:32 AM, "McTim" <dogwallah at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > from http://internetgovernance.org/pdf/IGP-JPA-08-comments.pdf
> 
> > "Last but not least, ITU and the UN Internet Governance Forum should
> > agree to conduct a bi-annual review and public consultation concerning
> > ITU's record and accountability."
> >
> > Run that up the flagpole at the next IGF, and see who salutes. I would
> > venture to say very few gov't reps would.
> 
> Right.  While I agree that the idea would be consistent with the TA
> mandate
> language, that at first blush it might sound reasonable given the dearth
> of
> alternative mechanisms of external accountability, and that soft oversight
> does not mean hard hierarchy, I can't see how the politics line up to make
> it viable.  Which of the following players could be expected to support
> requiring ICANN to report to the IGF: 1) the USG, 2) the EU, 3) other OECD
> governments, 4) business, including all the major Internet-related firms
> that have not bothered to participate in WSIS/IGF, 5) the
> technical/administrative nexus, 6) ICANN leadership, staff and
> constituencies (unless the oversight is really, really soft) 6) IGF
> leadership, 7) UN leadership (undoubtedly eager for more "UN power grab"
> headlines, etc), 8) other international organizations concerned about the
> possible precedent, etc...What are the incentives pro and con for each of
> these players, what is the scenario under which consensus among them all
> emerges?  I'm open to persuasion, but as with the framework convention
> idea,
> it's hard to identify the conditions under which a winning coalition of
> players content with the status quo wouldn't just view this as an
> unwelcome
> Pandora's box and say no thanks, internal accountability to GAC and other
> constituencies is sufficient.  And assuming the political support could be
> lined up, then we have all the operational questions about how IGF as
> currently configured could manage the process, how would this impact the
> IGF
> process more generally, what does it mean to report to an anyone-can-come
> conference rather than an organization with a defined membership and solid
> legal foundation, what obligations would ICANN have to do xyz because a
> few
> participants stood up and said we think abc and how would those be
> enforced,
> etc.
> 
> Maybe IGP could write a second paper that puts some meat on the bones to
> facilitate a more grounded discussion?
> 
> Best,
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
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