[At-Large] "Business" users (was Re: FW: Our choice for the ICANN Board)

[Karl Auerbach]

On 11/27/2010 02:11 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:

> IMO we need to acknowledge that At-Large means essentially everyone who is
> *not* a contracted party.

In the At-Large review report (from which the director seat being filled 
emerged) we took an even more expansive view - that the at-large 
consists of people (natural persons as opposed to legal fictions such as 
corporations) who are affected by the internet.  That definition leaves 
only an diminishing population outside the scope of the at-large.

As to the point being discussed here - most of us are people who are 
intertwined with "the economy".  It would be almost impossible to find a 
person who does not in some way engage in economic activity - (and I 
doubt that we would want such a person even if we could find one.)

Part of the job of being a director is to be introspective to understand 
from whence one's motivations and opinions arise.  A good director is 
able to separate his/her own private gainful drives from those of 
representing (or rather, synthesizing from a massive number of diverse 
and conflicting inputs) the opinions of the community of internet users.

Being involved in business as a principal is not, at least not in my 
mind, a disqualifying characteristic.

One of the reasons why I pound again and again on the idea that a 
director ought to publish a timely statement of how and why he/she 
reached each decision is that such a statement allows "the community" to 
view and, if necessary, make an expression that would allow a good 
director to revisit his/her methods of making decisions.

A director *will* make mistakes.  The measure of a good director is 
whether he/she is able to interact with the community to better conform 
his/her choices to the opinion of community.  (A good director may 
sometimes chose to go against the opinion of the community, but he/she 
ought to express a strong reason why.)

		--karl--