[governance] ICANN/USG Affirmation of Commitments

[Jeffrey A. Williams]

Roland and all,

-----Original Message-----
>From: Roland Perry <roland at internetpolicyagency.com>
>Sent: Oct 4, 2009 1:42 AM
>To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
>Subject: Re: [governance] ICANN/USG Affirmation of Commitments
>
>In message 
><11536711.1254601490348.JavaMail.root at mswamui-cedar.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
>, at 15:24:50 on Sat, 3 Oct 2009, Jeffrey A. Williams 
><jwkckid1 at ix.netcom.com> writes
>
>>>Even by "behaving well" you cannot act in the public interest when the
>>>public are split 50:50 regarding what their interests are.
>>
>>We don't know where the public is at any given point in time unless
>>we take a poll or vote of a representative sample.  Ergo assuming that
>>there is a 50:50 split is not even an accurate assumption but rather
>>an opinion.
>
>It is a hypothetical example. And should be considered in that context. 
>Imagine an election where that was the main debating point, and one side 
>only just won.
>
>>>If the "public interest" according to one set of politicians is to go to
>>>war over oil, and according to a different set is to avoid going to war
>>>over oil; how is that resolved (for the supporters of the losing side)
>>>after an election?
>>
>>It is or was resolved in your example by recognizing that majority
>>rules, even if you or I don't like the outcome.
>
>The problem with that is that the majority is volatile as a measure of 
>that. Look at this week's referendum in Ireland regarding the Lisbon 
>Treaty. That's a document with implications measured in generations. And 
>yet one short year later, when the vote was re-run, the voters 
>completely reversed their opinion on the issue. I doubt the underlying 
>"public interest" has changed that much.

  I don't.  Opinions change rapidly and dramatically in part as
a result of better information proliferation which the Internet has
played a major role.  As more is known and understood about any issue
or in fact legislation regarding an issue by the body politic that is
Internet connected and believes they may be effected, their opinions
and subsequent votes change accordingly and usually in Internet time,
which as you have your self made note of, very rapid indeed.
>
>Anyway, in the Internet Community we prefer to do things by consensus, 
>rather than voting.

Consensus without measure is not a consensus, but a guess.  
>-- 
>Roland Perry
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Regards,

Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 294k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" -
   Abraham Lincoln

"Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is very
often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B; liability
depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
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