[ALAC] The Public Interest (was: Fwd: [council] Updated [Correspondence] Steve Crocker to James Bladel re:GNSO Query on Public Interest and Exclusive Registry Access for gTLDs)

[Kan Kaili]

Hi, Olivier,

Thank you very much for raising this issue.  I fully support the definition of "public interest" to be further discussed, broadened, and re-defined in the Bylaws.

In my opinion, the "public" or "consumers" are never narrowly considered as registries and registrars, but the billions of end-users using the Internet.  In today's world, ICANN cannot be considered merely as a technical entity, at least not anymore.  Instead, as the Internet is vital to all global economical, social and political areas, ICANN, like it or not, actively or passively, must consider all these aspects in its operation and policy making for all mankind, already using or yet to use the Internet.

For example, as quoted in the letter, ICANN's Bylaw states that "... the Internet is an international network of networks, owned by no single nation, individual or organization, the Corporation shall, except as limited by Article 5 hereof, pursue the charitable and public purposes of lessening the burdens of government and promoting the global public interest ..."  This brings in the goal of ICANN as "One world, one Internet".  Thus, when facing potential threats of this goal, including political threats, ICANN cannot turn its face around and pretend nothing has happened, especailly it cannot do so under the excuse for being technical but not political.

Nowadays our world is often described as the "real world" vs. the "cyber world".  All humans, as well as ICANN, live in the real world governed by governments.  However, ICANN is also the United Nations of the cyber world, not of governments but of "stakeholders".  Thus, ICANN being the interface or buffer between the two worlds, it cannot avoid but to deal with all the economical, social and political issues of the real world, and do its very best to protect the cyber world's operation and order, so that people in the real world may harvest Internet's most benefits.

Best regards,
Kaili


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond 
  To: ALAC Working List 
  Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2016 2:15 PM
  Subject: [ALAC] The Public Interest (was: Fwd: [council] Updated [Correspondence] Steve Crocker to James Bladel re:GNSO Query on Public Interest and Exclusive Registry Access for gTLDs)


  Dear all,

  further to discussions about the Public Interest, please be so kind to find a response from the Chair of the ICANN Board to the Chair of the GNSO concerning a query about Exclusive Registry Access for gTLD Strings Representing Generic Terms.
  As a reminder, when the ALAC discussed the Public Interest with the ICANN Board at the Marrakech meeting, Bruce Tonkin, Board member, responded with a vision of the Public Interest mission of ICANN that was purely technical in terms of making sure Domain Names resolved to the proper IP addresses. During the ALT meeting with the ICANN Board Chair, the ICANN Board Chair responded that this was not quite correct and provided some language that broadened the use of the term "The Public Interest" which was more aligned to the ALAC's view that all actions that ICANN took needed to take into account the Public Interest. (I'll have to read the transcripts back for the exact wording)

  In the attached letter, the Chair of the ICANN Board quotes Paragraph 3 of the Articles of Incorporation - so that's a very technical baseline. He then explains the current status of information collection from the ICANN research on the global public interest framework. But nothing more so far.

  I would like to take this up with the Public Interest working group - but would appreciate your feedback first.

  Kindest regards,

  Olivier





  -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject:  [council] Updated [Correspondence] Steve Crocker to James Bladel re:GNSO Query on Public Interest and Exclusive Registry Access for gTLDs 
        Date:  Tue, 12 Apr 2016 23:16:08 +0000 
        From:  Glen de Saint Géry <Glen at icann.org> 
        To:  GNSO Council List (council at gnso.icann.org) <council at gnso.icann.org> 



  Dear Councillors,



  Please find the updated correspondence Steve Crocker to James Bladel re: GNSO Query on Public Interest and Exclusive Registry Access for gTLDs.



  This updated version has one very minor edit in the last sentence.



  Apologies for the inconvenience of double posting.



  Thank you.

  Kind regards,



  Glen









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