[governance] Governance issue : InternetSociety.ORG is about to sell the PIR to a Private Company

Sat Nov 23 11:22:19 EST 2019

{*please i apologize for the long email, i'm not an English native :'-(*}

Hi all,

Since the last week, we observe a real (Internet) 'governance issue' at
InternetSociety.ORG ; particularly the lack of inclusiveness in
decision-making
processes ; partly due to a lack of an appropriate 'governance' structure
which
would have been a foundation for real transparency, openness, bottom-up and
multi-stakeholder approaches...

As said here [1] by Ian, InternetSociety.ORG is more than a top-down
organization
 (and they even claim it as a justification), clearly separated (in
aspirations/willingness)
to their constituencies (Global Members, Chapters, SIGs –Special Interest
Groups–
and perhaps also Structures like : PIR (Public Interest Registry), IETF,
IAB...)

What a bad surprise to someones ! even those who have already read its
Bylaws [2] :-/
...of course, one could freely say that : what count is its
ability/efficacy to organize
the multistakeholderism outside. In other words, it is just fine to preach
the contrary
of your internal practices :'-( Fortunately, see a short reply here [3].

Now that InternetSociety.ORG want to conclude [4] a 'Privatized' 'Public
Interest'
transaction, what could this IGCaucus do ?

What is the real meaning, of this *centralized* decision, to the Future of
Internet
(FotI) [5] ?

I remember, back to february 2017, when the IGC wrote and sent an open
letter [6] to
InternetSociety.ORG about one of its country Chapter, whose president took
a position
(in this same mailing list: please bring back the archives!) in clear
opposition to
InternetSociety.ORG's Vision : "Internet is for Everyone !" BTW, today they
actually act
as if Internet is only for commercial's (for-profit) Orgs, while trying to
sell the PIR (a
not-for-profit org, dedicated to manage the registration of
*non-commercial* domain
names such as : non-commercial.org, not-for-profit.org, non-commercial.ong
or
no-commerce.ngo.) to Ethos Capital [7], a for-profit company.

So, IGC has done [6] it for a single chapter's (President) behavioral
drifts, why not also
do the same (or more) for the InternetSociety.ORG's ones ?

We should understand that IGCaucus.ORG (the domain name, of course :-))
will go
under the controle of a commercial company which will be allowed to
increase the
price of the domain names, under its responsibility, simply to satisfy a
legitimate right
to grow its business.

Perhaps, the IGC could also reconsider its approach of re-actions
when|where there is
a clear Internet's Governance concern ?

Look, now that at least (remember, the PIR is a 'public' Internet service ;
so the view of
the .ORG's registrants community count [8]) the InternetSociety.ORG's
chapters are
not included in decision making (even the ChAC — Chapter Advisory Council —
has
been neglected), what can IGC do ? Maybe, it's time to commence to more
actively
and practically support those who are effectively abused in Internet
governance practices...

In the case of these chapters (and registrants), can the IGC consider to :

•—
• Write and publish an open letter, addressed to InternetSociety.ORG
BoT|CEO,
to raise the Internet governance's issues in this situation. The ICA has
already
wrote a well structured open letter [9] to ICANN's BoD. A representative
set of
the community of .ORG's registrants|users have started an interesting
initiative [10] ;
the IGC can join.
• Practically help the chapters to organize themselves in opposing the sell
of the
PIR or in proposing an appropriate governance structure to
InternetSociety.ORG,
where its chapters would be more implicated in decision-making processes.
• Additionally, IGC could practically help the .ORG's Registrants community
to
organize themselves (perhaps too late [10]) in opposing the sell of the PIR
to a
for-profit company.
• Follow-up and communicate widely...
•—

Any thoughts ?
__
[1]: <https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/governance/2019-11/msg00046.html>
[2]: <
https://www.internetsociety.org/about-internet-society/governance-policies/by-laws/
>
[3]: <https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/governance/2019-11/msg00055.html>
[4]: <
https://www.internetsociety.org/news/press-releases/2019/ethos-capital-to-acquire-public-interest-registry-from-the-internet-society/
>
[5]: <https://www.internetsociety.org/tag/future-of-the-internet/> —
<htps://future.internetsociety.org>
[6]: <
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pQjEQ5UtR4D7f0HYeJsK0upPKnJTEyWULk-fUSajTd8/
>
[7]: <https://ethoscapital.com>
[8]: See criterion 6, community|registrants Level of Support for the
proposal —
”Reassignment of .org Top-Level Domain: Criteria for Assessing Proposals“
(20020520) <https://archive.icann.org/en/tlds/org/criteria.htm#06>
[9]: ICA's Open Letter <
http://www.circleid.com/pdf/ICA_Letter_to_ICANN_Board_201911115.pdf>
[10]: Open Initiative from 27 NGOs+3636 signatories <https://savedotorg.org>

...of course, you may have a different perspective :-)

Thanks.

Shalom,
--sb.

-- 

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