[governance] ICANN head warns against putting Internet addresses

Sivasubramanian M isolatedn at gmail.com
Tue Jun 1 16:36:53 EDT 2010


Dear Ian,


On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com> wrote:

>  Hi Siva,
>
> There are many things that could be done to make ICANN more nimble and
> productive without losing user input.
>

All that you have said are valid and sounds like another set of "Ten
Commandments" from you, similar to the ones that you have
proposed<http://isocmadras.blogspot.com/2010/02/imagining-internet-coverage-of-our.html>at
the IGF for Internet in general.

But these are measures that would strengthen ICANN as an organization, not
necessarily make it more nimble. As an organization ICANN would be 'nimble'
only when committees and working groups find a way to debate and arrive at
solutions faster. Also, some of the lesser decisions need not wait to go
through the usual public comment period. If fellowship grants are to be
extended to five more applicants or if icann fees on domain registrations to
be increased by a few cents, or if components of the budget needs to be
slightly amended, decisions and actions need not wait for a compulsive
public comment period but may be allowed to proceed with the decisions and
actions open for public comments on an ongoing basis.


>
> Here’s a few
>
> Separate policy development activities from day to day management
> activities and involve constituencies in policy development heavily, day to
> day management sparsely if at all.
>

At the same time, there shouldn't be a disconnect between policy as
developed by the constituencies and day to day actions as performed by the
Staff. There may not be a disconnect at the moment, but it may still be
necessary for the constituencies to have a broad 'oversight' of day to day
management activities.


> Clarify mission and scope of activities
> Deal with historic At Large – NCUC overlaps
>

Avri Doria has responded to this point in a later message. There are many
from NCUC / NCSG who are part of at Large and many from at Large who are
part of NCSG. This is positive, but the issues arise because many tend to
'belong' more to one group than to another.If this changes there would be
greater harmony of functions between at-Large and NCUC. Possibly by having
those with an NCUC identity to move to leadership roles within at-Large /
ALAC and vice versa, eventually to pave way for enhanced harmony.

Sivasubramanian M

Cut number of face to face meetings to max 2 per annum (1 is probably enough
> in fact)
>


> Develop strong policy base for expenditure of internet tax base gathered
> Develop base of trust with constituencies so as to eliminate nitpicking
> activities based on mistrust of management
> Get the high level stuff right, then people will stop nitpicking about the
> trivia
>
>
> Transparency and public participation don’t have to be inconsistent with
> capacity to act quickly and organisational effectiveness.
>
> Ian Peter
>
> ------------------------------
> *From: *Sivasubramanian M <isolatedn at gmail.com>
> *Date: *Sun, 30 May 2010 18:05:01 +0530
> *To: *<governance at lists.cpsr.org>, Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com>
>
> *Subject: *Re: [governance] ICANN head warns against putting Internet
> addresses
>
>
>
> On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 3:28 AM, Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com> wrote:
>
> I'm not sure whether Rod Beckstrom said ICANN was nimble or not - didn't he
> just say that it would be less nimble under UN control? (that is a
> reasonable assumption..)
>
> I do not think ICANN could be described as nimble by anyone in its current
> state, but it is a good aspiration. To me, its an incredibly bloated
> organisation currently.
>
>
> Dear Ian
>
> What can we possible expect ICANN to be, as an unusual organization with a
> an unusual design of public participation? Would we allow ICANN to be
> nimble?
>
> At the atLarge Advisory Committee (don't discuss at-large on this thread,
> it is quoted as an example situation)  there was a proposal to delegate
> responsibilities of routine decisions to an executive committee of five out
> fifteen members. There was an uproar. Everything MUST be discussed by the
> whole committe of fifteen before any decision is taken.  So it takes time to
> deliberate within alac, with atLarge at large on every issue that is brought
> up. One person or a closely knit committee can't take snap decisions and
> plunge into action. Same is true of the GNSO, or the NCSG. Would any of
> these constituencies be willing to authorize a small group or an individual
> to make decisions and act upon such decisions on behalf of the whole group?
> Would the icann community authorize its CEO to take snap decisions?
>
> If a working group that I am part of didn't consider my comments and still
> made the sanest and wisest decision I would still not keep quiet and would
> like the decision of the working group reviewed to reconsider my points of
> view. This happens all around, in every working group of every constituency
> on every decision. This in a sense is in the spirit of public participation.
>
> The pay off is that decisions and actions aren't as swift as happens in a
> private organizations with a somewhat arbitrary decision making process. We
> can't possibly complain that ICANN isn't nimble enough.
>
> What Beckstrom probably meant is that under UN the process would become
> lethargic, which can't possibly be a word that you can use to describe the
> present state of ICANN processes.
>
> Sivasubramanian M.
>
>
> Much of that is because of the lack of appropriate
> internet governance structures and ICANN becoming the default home for lots
> of things it shouldn't be involved in.
>
> Ian
>
>
> > From: "S. Subbiah" <subbiah at i-dns.net>
> > Reply-To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>, "S. Subbiah" <subbiah at i-dns.net>
> > Date: Thu, 27 May 2010 09:02:55 -0700
> > To: <governance at lists.cpsr.org>, Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE
> > <bdelachapelle at gmail.com>
> > Cc: Ginger Paque <gpaque at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [governance] ICANN head warns against putting Internet
> addresses
> >
> > Bertrand,
> >
> > I leave the debate of whether ICANN is nimble or not (relative to others
> > are not) to the collective judgement of all observers - the record I
> > think clearly speaks for itself.
> >
> > However, ss someone who headed the Singapore team that first went to an
> > ICANN Chairman at ICANN's first meeting in March 1999 and offered the
> > availability of IDN (having been largely concieved and invented at the
> > National University of Singapore in 1997/8) and championed its cause
> > since and as such probably know the history of IDN more than anyone else
> > alive today, I find it offensive that Rod elects to give the example of
> > IDN introduction as a centerpeice of ICANN's "nimbleness".
> >
> > In particular he uses the example of ".misr"  (the name of egypt in
> > arabic) - since the interview happens to be in Egypt. My company happens
> > to have a copy of a contract signed in 2000 (predating ICANN's first
> > interest in IDN in late 2000) by the same EGNIC for launching the same
> > .misr (all technology was supplied and and in the end they did not
> > launch it back then for various reasons inclduing ICANN's sudden
> > interest in IDN). Oddly it was counter-signed by the then EGNIC chief,
> > who is now the Minister of Information Technology of Egypt who recently
> > launched virtually the same thing a decade later.
> >
> > In truth all ICANN did was delay things 10 years. If that is the best
> > crowing example of ICANN's nimbleness, I wonder what slow is.
> >
> > And the fact that a new CEO who happens to proclaim widely that the IDN
> > launch was historic and one of the most important things, if not the
> > most important one, to happen to the Internet, is completely unaware of
> > such IDN history and uses a failure in nimbleness as an example of great
> > nimbleness, only highlights what Wolfgang said - ICANN has repeated
> > itself for so long, over and over again, with new sets of unaware people
> > proclaiming the old now new again. And the irony is that our new CEO is
> > at it as well - no one can escape the curse of procrastination.  If a
> > failure in nimbleness of an organization can be celebrated  as  the
> > epitome of nimbleness by the mouthpiece of that organization, the
> > question of whether that organization is nimble or not pretty much
> > answers itself.
> >
> > Perhaps it is simply nimble in its own mind.
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Subbiah
> >
> >
> >
> > Bertrand de La Chapelle wrote:
> >
> >> ICANN, NIMBLE ???? :-))
> >>
> >> Not that replacing it with a UN body would improve things. The
> >> challenge is how to build a more international, more globally
> >> accountable and public interest oriented ICANN, not the mere
> >> alternative : either the way ICANN (dis)functions today or another,
> >> even more unappealing option. The AoC paves a way forward. Will we
> >> collectively be able to move in the right direction ? That is the
> >> right question.
> >>
> >> B.
> >>
> >> On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 10:43 AM, Ginger Paque <gpaque at gmail.com
> >> <mailto:gpaque at gmail.com> <gpaque at gmail.com%3E>> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>     ICANN head warns against putting Internet addresses under UN control
> >>
> >>     Posted by Andrew Adams:
> >>
> >>     This (Canadian) Globe and Mail article includes details of
> >>     Beckstrom's recent
> >>     statements against UN oversight of ICANN.
> >>
> >>     http://tinyurl.com/38m78m2
> >>
> >>     Summary: UN oversight would make ICANN "less nimble" according to
> >>     Beckstrom.
> >>
> >>     My opinion: could ICANN really be any less nimble given how
> >>     glacial it is at
> >>     introducing innovative ideas? Perhaps more international oversight
> >>     could
> >>     pressure ICANN into prioritising the real needs of users and less
> the
> >>     concerns of staff which may or may not coincide with user needs.
> >>
> >>     --
> >>     Professor Andrew A Adams
> >>     Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration, and
> >>     Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics
> >>     Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan
> >>
> >>
> >>     ____________________________________________________________
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> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> ____________________
> >> Bertrand de La Chapelle
> >> Délégué Spécial pour la Société de l'Information / Special Envoy for
> >> the Information Society
> >> Ministère des Affaires Etrangères et Européennes/ French Ministry of
> >> Foreign and European Affairs
> >> Tel : +33 (0)6 11 88 33 32
> >>
> >> "Le plus beau métier des hommes, c'est d'unir les hommes" Antoine de
> >> Saint Exupéry
> >> ("there is no greater mission for humans than uniting humans")
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
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