[At-Large] It's time to end the failed Ombudsman experiment, was Respectful Online Communication and Behavior

John R. Levine johnl at iecc.com
Tue May 12 13:11:53 EDT 2009


>> ICANN's Ombudsman, Frank Fowlie, recently posted a web page on Respectful
>> Online Communication and Behavior
> 
> I must say that I found that to be a rather strange document.

Unfortunately, I don't find it odd at all.  ICANN's Ombudsman, who has never 
had more than a trickle of complaints to justify his position, now will be Hall 
Monitor, or perhaps Head Censor, which will allow him to invent cases at will.

It's been clear for years that the Ombudsman experiment is a failure, adding 
neither clarity nor fairness to ICANN's process.  It's long past time to delete 
Article V from the ICANN bylaws and bring the experiment to an end.  If ICANN 
wants to be credible and transparent, it needs fewer, simpler processes.

R's,
John



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