[governance] US Congress & the JPA

[gurstein]

Whoops ;-(

M

-----Original Message-----
From: gurstein [mailto:gurstein at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 10:14 AM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; 'George Sadowsky'
Subject: RE: [governance] US Congress & the JPA


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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