[NA-Discuss] New Travel Policy - a symptom

[Alan Greenberg]

I hate to see a good argument hurt by inaccuracies, so I will make a 
few comments. I trust that this will not be taken as full support for 
the new travel policy (some of which I think is fine, and some quite 
ill-conceived, but I will save that analysis for another time).

For brevity, I am extracting the parts that I have comments on.

At 14/08/2008 03:47 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:

>Already, the business and IP communities have split themselves into two
>different constituencies -- though they share the same interests and
>motivations -- in order to dilute the representation of the public
>interest. This did not and could not happen without the consent of ICANN
>management.

There have been three business oriented constituencies in ICANN from 
the start (that is, since constituencies came into being) - 
Commercial and Business users, ISPs and Intellectual Property. There 
was no split. Whether the original set of constituencies was right or 
wrong is another discussion. See 
http://web.archive.org/web/19991104051222/www.icann.org/dnso/dnso1.htm 
for the history.


>The fact remains that, even without funding, the business and contracted
>communities manage to show up in force at every ICANN meeting.

Not quite accurate. In Delhi (admittedly an extreme case), the 
business and contracted party constituencies of the GNSO Council were 
missing 6 of their 15 Councillors. 1 Registry, 2 Registrar, and all 
three IP. Perhaps one or two of these were for personal reasons, but 
money was the driver.

>- why the business, IP and contracted constituencies need and deserve
>ICANN support for their lobbyists

Surely many of those associated with Internet-driven businesses are 
at ICANN funded by their employers. But there are others who pay 
their own way, and who must make up the time away from their 
businesses (particularly true for some lawyers with firms who worship 
only billable hours). Some no doubt have annual incomes that exceed 
your or mine and can better afford these ICANN junkets, but there are 
some who simply believe in what they are doing and actually volunteer 
their time - hard as it is to believe.

Alan