[AFRI-Discuss] [At-Large] GNSO Improvements - ALAC and Joint Statements - comments requested

[Vittorio Bertola]

At-Large Staff ha scritto:
> Dear All:
> 
> As you may recall, an Ad-Hoc Working Group on GNSO Improvements, with
> representatives of each RALO, has been working on a response to the public
> consultation on the Board Governance Committee¹s proposals for improvements
> to the GNSO.
> 
> As a part of that work, the working group was also engaged in negotiations
> with various communities within the GNSO Community, including the Commercial
> and Business Users, Intellectual Property, Internet Service and Connectino
> Providers, and Non-Commercial Users Constituencies.
> 
> The Joint Statement that resulted from those discussions was posted to the
> public comment forum today, and is accessible at:
> http://forum.icann.org/lists/gnso-improvements-report-2008/msg00012.html.

I wish I could make full comments to what I just read in this statement, 
but I am still a member of the GNSO Review WG and, in that role, I feel 
bound to recognize whatever consensus will emerge from the community and 
not to try to influence it too much.

At the same time, there is one thing that I really can't refrain from 
saying: the political rationale for:

- supporting an increased weight for the commercial user constituencies, 
that are the less diverse constituencies in ICANN, are focused on a 
narrow set of commercial interests from a handful of developed 
countries, and have been constantly opposing user interests on a number 
of matters;

- supporting a reduced weight for the registry and registrar 
constituencies, that have been sympathetic with user interests on 
similar matters;

- supporting the elimination of Nomcom appointees, that include the 
present Chair and that have traditionally been a strong factor in favour 
of breaking deadlocks and promoting the global public interest;

- notwithstanding the disclaimer in the document, promoting the concept 
that the ALAC represents just another interest group of the GNSO and so 
it should perhaps, sooner or later, be demoted from the Board AC level 
to the SO constituency level;

all of this just to get a couple of weightless voting positions in the 
GNSO council to be appointed by the ALAC, really escapes me.

Regards,
-- 
vb.                   Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu   <--------
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