[governance] FW: New Blogpost: Is There a Global Internet Community

parminder parminder at itforchange.net
Wed Apr 1 05:52:45 EDT 2015



On Wednesday 01 April 2015 03:23 AM, Michael Gurstein wrote:
>
> Some may find this of interest…
>
> https://gurstein.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/is-there-a-global-internet-community/
>

To contextualise Michael's what was much needed exposition to a very 
specific issue, one of the hottest IG issues, pl see the update document 
on IANA stewardship transition

https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/iana-stewardship-discussion-31mar15-en.pdf 


The term 'community' is freely bandied around as if everyone knows what 
it means, and mind it, this is an authoritative discussion about a new 
institutional mechanism where one needs to know what a term means. Btw, 
they have recruited legal advisers (one need not even check to know that 
they must be US firms but not to digress...) to ensure that whatever 
they come up with is is legally sound, which includes having a clear 
legal meaning. So friends, who are involved in, or are otherwise close, 
to IANA transition process, what does the term 'community' mean in this 
document - is it the larger public affected by the Internet or is it the 
set of people who have traditionally been engaging with ICANN and its 
associated organisations, and are part of its committees, outreach 
systems and so on. Accordingly, I will like to know whether it is the 
larger public accountability of ICANN that is being addressed by the 
concerned group, or its accountability to a narrowly defined group, 
which too please do define for me.

For instance, one cannot make sense of such important and fundamental 
propositions like the below, without knowing what or who is the 
'community' .

(quote from the cited doc begins)

The group discussed  new mechanisms to empower the community  in ICANN’s 
decision-making processes. In particular, there was general convergence 
on the need to enable the community to :

# Recall (or “spill”) ICANN’s Board of Directors
# Approve or prevent changes to ICANN’s Bylaws, Mission and Core Values
# Reject Board decisions on ICANN’s Strategic Plan and budget (where the 
Board has failed to appropriately consider community input)

## It was recognized that, while it was clearly important that the ICANN 
Board be accountable to the community, it was also essential for the 
community itself to meet high standards of accountability.

(ends)

Community is spoken of as something which can be ascribed clear agency, 
and thus must be clearly definable. Please do define it for us to enable 
us to make any sense of what this group is proposing on an issue which 
is so important for the global public.


In a doc referenced in the above doc, which is titled "Accountability 
mechanism" and can be found here 
https://community.icann.org/download/attachments/52888740/IRP%20Accountability%20Mechanism%20Template%20.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1426866536000&api=v2 


and I quote from it (this is about possible ways to compose the 
Independent Review Board)

(begins)
Members to be nominated by the Board in consultation with the 
appointment by CEO, approved [how?] by community; [possible 
alternativeswhom? involving a reversal of the above (i.e. community 
nomination andBoard approval)] [Also consider external vetting or rating 
schemes fornominees, i.e., third party organization such as ICDR could 
appoint/nominate subject to confirmation.]

(ends)

We can make no sense of all this without clearly knowing what or who is 
the 'community' here. Please help.

Thanks, parminder

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