[At-Large] CCWG Briefings - Presentation

[Karl Auerbach]

On 2/26/16 12:55 AM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> Karl makes a compelling case why ICANN should not be a California 
> corporation.
That was not my point at all.

One can go to pretty much any country, any state, on the Earth and will 
find similar laws.

There will, of course, be variations in color and texture among those 
laws.  But no matter where, when people pool their interests in a common 
enterprise there will be the same questions of control during times of 
agreement and times of disagreement.  From the 17th to the 20th century 
European ideas of organization were spread around the world.

These laws have been polished through centuries of experience. Those who 
think they have a better idea often discover that that idea has occurred 
before and was found wanting.

I am old enough to have come of age during the "flower power" era of the 
1960's.  I saw (and experienced) a lot of people and groups who rejected 
"the establishment" and sought to reshape the world along lines that 
were less confrontational,  more "personally empowered", more "love, 
peace, and good vibes".   Those attempts, like previous Utopian 
movements, faded because they were based on aspirations rather than 
recognition of hard lessons of experience with human nature.

These proposals to restructure ICANN are similarly aspirational. And 
similarly unrealistic.

Perhaps most unrealistic is the idea that "we can just pick up and move 
to somewhere else".

The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.  And if 
one takes a look around it's going to be hard to find a place that is 
more amenable than California to innovated organizational structures.  
Which is a good reason to look at what the aging Hippies who now run 
California have put into California's public-benefit/non-profit 
corporations law with regard to membership and the powers of that 
membership.

Don't fight the system.  Use it.

         --karl--




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