[At-Large] ITU versus ICANN

Gareth Shearman shearman at victoria.tc.ca
Sat Oct 9 16:15:37 UTC 2010


Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Sivas - good article.

Gareth

On 2010-10-09, at 7:41 AM, Sivasubramanian M wrote:

> Dear Evan
> 
> Thank you for posting my article here at the atLarge list. There is so much
> that at-Large can do deal with the ITU imbalance, independently as well as
> in consultation with GAC, but we will wait for some comments from the
> community on this article.
> 
> Will it be in order if I make a translation request for this article?
> 
> 
> Sivasubramanian M
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Sat, Oct 9, 2010 at 7:56 PM, Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org> wrote:
> 
>> There has been quite a bit of news lately regarding noises made about ICANN
>> at the recent meeting of the International Telecom Union (ITU).
>> 
>> One proposal from Russian-speaking countries has gone so far as to call for
>> scrapping the GAC, and have ITU give itself veto power over all ICANN board
>> decisions. Even a compromise would essentially undermine the finality of
>> any
>> ICANN Board policy.
>> 
>> I want to call your attention to a very thoughtful article in
>> CircleID<
>> http://www.circleid.com/posts/on_the_need_to_separate_the_telecom_business_agenda_from_government_policy/
>>> written
>> by ALAC's own Sivasubramanian Muthusamy, as well as the comments by
>> former Board member Karl Auerbach to another CircleID
>> piece<http://www.circleid.com/posts/20101004_plutocrats_and_the_internet/
>>> written
>> by Gregory Francis.
>> 
>> I am very interested in hearing the views of others here on this topic. In
>> some ways it seems that ICANN has practically begged for such intervention,
>> through a history of opacity and an agenda driven by business and
>> self-aggrandised senior staff rather than the public interest. Our own
>> difficulty within At-Large to advance policy -- seen most recently through
>> Board pushback on two important cross-community initiatives -- offers
>> plenty
>> of evidence of that.
>> 
>> Then again, I have serious doubts that the ITU's oversight will be any
>> better for the public interest, but rather just assert the worst of all
>> levels of government control.
>> 
>> Does ICANN At-Large have any role in this debate? Can we help save ICANN
>> from such capture? Should we welcome it? Should we care?
>> 
>> I welcome any comment that will help guide my own approach to this,
>> including (especially!) from Karl and Sivas.
>> 
>> - Evan
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