[governance] US Congress & the JPA

[George Sadowsky]

Mike,

Yesterday Twomey said it's an Australian company, and that is what I 
had heard earlier.

George

At 10:13 AM -0700 6/5/09, gurstein wrote:
>George,
>
>Was the company that you refer to in which Magaziner was involved called
>Westlake--an NZ company BTW, not AU?
>
>I'm not sure if I communicated this to you at the time, but with the
>colleagues with whom I had done the evaluation of UNESCO's Information for
>All (IFAP) Programme we bid on the ALAC evaluation and the whole process was
>incredibly murky and clearly rigged to have Westlake do the contract... (The
>MD of Westlake had social and business ties with Twomey...
>
>I objected at the time but it got lost in the ICANN morass...
>
>M
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: George Sadowsky [mailto:george.sadowsky at attglobal.net]
>Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 9:54 AM
>To: Willie Currie; governance at lists.cpsr.org
>Subject: Re: [governance] US Congress & the JPA
>
>
>Hi, Willie,
>
>I thought that Congressman Stearns' comments were a mixture of the
>most perceptive and the most uninformed (a curious mixture) of the
>group.  He did not understand the difference between the ongoing fees
>and the proposed fees for top-level new gTLDs.  He also did not
>understand that non-profits in general are strongly encouraged to
>have reserves equivalent to a year's worth of operating expenses.  He
>also did not understand the limits of ICANN's mandate.
>
>But his drilling down in the financial information, on Twomey's
>salary, on this strange contract with an Australian company (of which
>I have been informed that Ira Magaziner is a partner) that Twomey
>claimed that the Board approved,  on the alternative uses of funds
>that ICANN could chose, and in particular why there weren't more
>funds dedicated to security and stability --- hey, what does that say
>about the community's priorities  (!!!)   ---  was masterful.  In
>fact, I think that the congressional staffs generally did a good job
>in preparing questions.  The conversation was blunt and revealing,
>with a minimum of political correctness, a model for learning that I
>like very much.
>
>It was an unfortunate hearing for ICANN.  The mood of the Congress is
>such that the JPA is likely to be continued in some form or other.
>Also, I think that NTIA came out of the process somewhat bloodied, so
>that perhaps the next version of the JPA could be with another office
>in our government.
>
>Given also the presumed imminent change of ICANN's CEO, this is a
>very interesting time for ICANN and for those related aspects of
>Internet governance as well.
>
>George
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
>At 11:34 AM -0400 6/5/09, Willie Currie wrote:
>>Hi George
>>
>>Very defensive  body language from Paul Twomey, with his arms
>>crossed...
>>
>>I thought the line of questioning from Congressman Stearns on
>>ICANN's surplus was quite revealing. ICANN has a surplus of $7mil
>>and is using it to build a reserve fund which now stands at $34mil.
>>So Stearns was asking why ICANN as a non-profit doesn't reduce its
>>fee structures, esp as with the new GTLDs it will pull in $90 mil
>>next year. Asked about this, Dr Lenard of the Technology Policy
>>Institute said that this was related to the problem of
>>accountability as ICANN is only accontable to itself.
>>
>>Willie
>>
>>George Sadowsky wrote:
>>>All:
>>>
>>>The bottom of the web  page:
>>>
>>>
>>>http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=arti
>>>cle&id=1642:energy-and-commerce-subcommittee-hearing-on-oversight-of-t
>>>he-internet-corporation-for-assigned-names-and-numbers-icann&catid=134
>>>:subcommittee-on-communications-technology-and-the-internet&Itemid=74
>>>
>>>
>>>contains pointers  to both streaming and downloadable versions of
>>>the entire hearing.
>>>
>>>I found the hearing quite revealing, for its content, for the
>>>amount of misunderstanding of basic facts, for the lack of
>>>understanding of opposing viewpoints, and for some very coherent
>  >>and perceptive things that were said.
>>>
>>>3 hours, 1.5 gigabytes.  I don't know if a transcript exists, but
>>>the video contains interesting body language that a transcript
>>>would not convey.
>>>
>>>George
>>>
>>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>~~
>
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