[lac-discuss-en] Fwd: [Governance] ICANN Meeting in Mexico

Wed Feb 11 07:41:02 CST 2009

You may find this thread interesting.....and fodder for the discussions at
Mexico City.

Carlton Samuels
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Norbert Klein <nhklein at gmx.net>
Date: Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 1:45 AM
Subject: Re: [governance] Re: [Coalition] ICANN Meeting in Mexico
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Cc: "Karl E. Peters" <kpeters at tldainc.org>, Ginger Paque <gpaque at gmail.com>

On Wednesday, 11 February 2009 09:23:46 Karl E. Peters wrote:

> Ginger and all,
>     There is currently an effort to organize a "Users" constituency to the
> GNSO that meets strong resistance from many who are involved in a new
> constituency for non-commercial domain name (SLD) owners. The person
> coordinating both efforts on behalf of ICANN is Danny Younger, who
deserves
> a hearty thanks for a thankless job. Anyone wishing to learn more may join
> the list for this effort or ask me if you need directions. Sincerely
yours,
> Karl E. Peters, President
> Top Level Domain Association, Inc.
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [governance] Re: [Coalition] ICANN Meeting in Mexico
> From: Ginger Paque <gpaque at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, February 10, 2009 1:34 pm
> To: I G List <governance at lists.cpsr.org>, Public Voice
> <coalition at mailman.thepublicvoice.org>
>
> I agree with Katitza, that we should be watching the development of the
> proposed At Large summit at the upcoming ICANN meeting in Mexico. The
> Summit objectives are:
>
> 4. Objectives
> 4.1. An informed At-Large community that is better able to interact with
> other ICANN constituencies, supporting organisations and advisory
> committees.
> 4.2. An informed At-Large community that clearly understands the issues
> confronting ICANN and ICANN's roles and responsibilities therein.
> 4.3. Increased involvement by At-Large in ICANN policy debate.
> 4.4. An At-Large community that more clearly understands the global,
rather
> than merely regional, point of view on ICANN-related issues.
> 4.5. A more engaged At-Large community that clearly understands the timing
> and framework of various issues currently confronting ICANN
>
> Although I find one of the "Deliverables" to be even more interesting:
>
> 5.5. Work on a "Individual Internet Users" declaration.
>
> (Both of the above citations are from
>
https://st.icann.org/data/workspaces/summit-wg/attachments/documents:200802
>14104609-1-21013/original/14%2002%202008%20Summit%20proposal%20and%20budget.
>pdf)
>
> Does anyone have more information on the "Individual Internet Users"
> declaration? Any thoughts or opinions?
>
> Best,
> Ginger

Interesting – remembering the long history of discussions and decisions
related to this field, I hope it will not ending in a dead end road because
of a lack of clear definition of purpose – or better: of different purposes.

Every person is also an "Individual Internet Users" – in addition to being a
domain name seller, an ISP manager, a communications researcher etc. But
until now, to focus on specific activities and concerns in ICANN,
these "individuals" have found their place in the different "constituencies"
according to  specific task. Some individuals like myself found
institutional
and personal concerns well housed in the  "Non-Commercial Users"
constituency, other individuals have found their place within national
At-Large structures, which are regionally clustered in RALOs, some
individual
businesspeople are in the "Commercial and Business Users" constituency of
ICANN, etc.

I am very much interested to know what a somewhat abstract "Individual
Internet Users" declaration might be – if it is not a duplication of either
the conceptual/functional or the national/regional groupings. In my
understanding these relate on the one had to the existing constituencies,
and
on the other to the national and regional ALAC/RALO structures – but when it
comes to "global, rather than merely regional, point of view on
ICANN-related
issues" I am at a loss to clearly understand what it means – I sounds a
little bit like a douplication of ICANN.

When the first round of an At-Large Users registration process was going on
–
up to the ICANN Accra meeting 2002, if I remember correctly, it was an
unstructured global process: every individual Internet user can participate,
and every individual Internet user can be a candidate to be voted into
whatever offices to be created. It was as if all the US citizens would vote
for the president, where every citizen could also be a presidential
candidate - without any sub-structures, any parties, with their chapters,
and
no primaries. This would obviously lead nowhere – and so an effort of
clarification of purpose started, which led to the present arrangements:
conceptual/programmatic/operational concerns for institutions
(and "Individual Internet Users" in them) found there place in the different
ICANN constituencies, while the concerns of the "Individual Internet Users"
with national and regional concerns organized themselves in the ALAC/RALO
structures.

This is my understanding, developed over the years. And this why I do not
yet
see how an "Individual Internet Users" structure would define its
specificity – without ending up in the same spiral as it happened after
Accra. So I am looking forward to how this this discussion develops.

Norbert Klein

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