[At-Large] [BMSPC-2020] Board seat 15 selection

[Alan Levin]

+1 - can't really add much... my sense is the same for ISOC post SLC 2001

On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 6:13 PM Karl Auerbach <karl at cavebear.com> wrote:

> I like your story.
>
> I have been involved with ICANN since before it was formed.
>
> In that swirling of events around the formation of ICANN there was a
> bright belief and requirement that ICANN be structured, after a short
> initial interim organizational period, so that it would be controlled by
> the community of internet users.
>
> But as we look on the ICANN today only a small splinter remains of that
> obligation.  And that small relic was regained only through long and
> hard work and over much opposition.
>
> Much of this is reflected in our 2009 report at
>
> https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/final-report-alac-review-09jun09-en.pdf
> Take a look at my "concurrence" that begins on page 33.
>
> Today's ICANN is an epitome of a regulatory body captured by those who
> it purports to regulate.
>
> In the 20+ years since ICANN was formed not even one new organization
> has chosen to model itself upon ICANN.
>
> This thread of e-mails mentions the year 2000 elections.  I am certain
> that there will arise at least one voice that tries to besmirch that event.
>
> One should not forget that ICANN has a long held allergy to elections,
> and even to the word "election" itself.  ICANN, or rather the law firm
> that created ICANN, fears what are some reasonable obligations that are
> triggered by organizational elections.  The list of those obligations,
> as well as ICANN's dance of evasion, is visible in ICANN's own 1999
> document:
> http://archive.icann.org/en/meetings/santiago/membership-analysis.htm
>
> The year 2000 elections were an initial attempt to organize an election,
> or to use ICANN's word, a "selection".
>
> For an first-time effort that election went reasonably well.
>
> There are those who will focus on the difficulties or problems of that
> election - not unlike a new parent who obsesses on the disruption, mess,
> and noise of a new baby yet fails to remember that that child represents
> a new human, and new person, a new potential, coming into the world.
>
> It is easy to forget some of the events of that election:
>
> An electorate formed quickly without ICANN support or funding -
> ultimately there were, if I remember correctly, well more than 200,000
> voters who tried to register to participate (many could not consummate
> their registrations because ICANN's registration system was an abysmal
> failure of design, implementation, and operation.)
>
> There was a robust campaign and debate in the North American region
> (less so in other regions.)  My own campaign platform is still online at
> https://www.cavebear.com/archive/icann-board/platform.htm  (I still hew
> to most of that platform with the exception of my mistaken view of Louis
> Touton, a man who I came to know as one of the bright lights of ICANN.)
>
> The entire process was disrupted by at least one ICANN-related person.
> And there was general institutional hostility (by ICANN) against the
> process once the ballot was opened to allow candidates not chosen by
> ICANN's "nominating" committee.
>
> There were some problems with those elections.  But in general they were
> a success.
>
> The problems that did occur could have been addressed on the next round
> that would have occurred two or three years later.  But that opportunity
> was lost and destroyed.
>
> If ICANN is to survive as anything more than a regulatory relic it needs
> to return to its root conception as a body that is unambiguously
> controlled by the public for whose benefit it purports to exist.
>
>          --karl--
>
>
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