[governance] Re: [Coalition] ICANN Meeting in Mexico

[Norbert Klein]

On Wednesday, 11 February 2009 09:23:46 Karl E. Peters wrote:

> Ginger and all,
>     There is currently an effort to organize a "Users" constituency to the
> GNSO that meets strong resistance from many who are involved in a new
> constituency for non-commercial domain name (SLD) owners. The person
> coordinating both efforts on behalf of ICANN is Danny Younger, who deserves
> a hearty thanks for a thankless job. Anyone wishing to learn more may join
> the list for this effort or ask me if you need directions. Sincerely yours,
> Karl E. Peters, President
> Top Level Domain Association, Inc.
>  
>  
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [governance] Re: [Coalition] ICANN Meeting in Mexico
> From: Ginger Paque <gpaque at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, February 10, 2009 1:34 pm
> To: I G List <governance at lists.cpsr.org>, Public Voice
> <coalition at mailman.thepublicvoice.org>
>
> I agree with Katitza, that we should be watching the development of the
> proposed At Large summit at the upcoming ICANN meeting in Mexico. The
> Summit objectives are:
>
> 4. Objectives
> 4.1. An informed At-Large community that is better able to interact with
> other ICANN constituencies, supporting organisations and advisory
> committees.
> 4.2. An informed At-Large community that clearly understands the issues
> confronting ICANN and ICANN's roles and responsibilities therein.
> 4.3. Increased involvement by At-Large in ICANN policy debate.
> 4.4. An At-Large community that more clearly understands the global, rather
> than merely regional, point of view on ICANN-related issues.
> 4.5. A more engaged At-Large community that clearly understands the timing
> and framework of various issues currently confronting ICANN
>
> Although I find one of the "Deliverables" to be even more interesting:
>
> 5.5. Work on a "Individual Internet Users" declaration.
>
> (Both of the above citations are from
> https://st.icann.org/data/workspaces/summit-wg/attachments/documents:200802
>14104609-1-21013/original/14%2002%202008%20Summit%20proposal%20and%20budget.
>pdf)
>
> Does anyone have more information on the "Individual Internet Users"
> declaration? Any thoughts or opinions?
>
> Best,
> Ginger

Interesting – remembering the long history of discussions and decisions 
related to this field, I hope it will not ending in a dead end road because 
of a lack of clear definition of purpose – or better: of different purposes.

Every person is also an "Individual Internet Users" – in addition to being a 
domain name seller, an ISP manager, a communications researcher etc. But 
until now, to focus on specific activities and concerns in ICANN, 
these “individuals” have found their place in the different “constituencies” 
according to  specific task. Some individuals like myself found institutional 
and personal concerns well housed in the  "Non-Commercial Users" 
constituency, other individuals have found their place within national 
At-Large structures, which are regionally clustered in RALOs, some individual 
businesspeople are in the "Commercial and Business Users" constituency of 
ICANN, etc.

I am very much interested to know what a somewhat abstract "Individual 
Internet Users" declaration might be – if it is not a duplication of either 
the conceptual/functional or the national/regional groupings. In my 
understanding these relate on the one had to the existing constituencies, and 
on the other to the national and regional ALAC/RALO structures – but when it 
comes to “global, rather than merely regional, point of view on ICANN-related 
issues” I am at a loss to clearly understand what it means – I sounds a 
little bit like a douplication of ICANN.

When the first round of an At-Large Users registration process was going on – 
up to the ICANN Accra meeting 2002, if I remember correctly, it was an 
unstructured global process: every individual Internet user can participate, 
and every individual Internet user can be a candidate to be voted into 
whatever offices to be created. It was as if all the US citizens would vote 
for the president, where every citizen could also be a presidential 
candidate - without any sub-structures, any parties, with their chapters, and 
no primaries. This would obviously lead nowhere – and so an effort of 
clarification of purpose started, which led to the present arrangements: 
conceptual/programmatic/operational concerns for institutions 
(and "Individual Internet Users" in them) found there place in the different 
ICANN constituencies, while the concerns of the "Individual Internet Users" 
with national and regional concerns organized themselves in the ALAC/RALO 
structures.

This is my understanding, developed over the years. And this why I do not yet 
see how an "Individual Internet Users" structure would define its 
specificity – without ending up in the same spiral as it happened after 
Accra. So I am looking forward to how this this discussion develops.


Norbert Klein


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