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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Evan, I have spent
many years tilting at windmills, working for change that I
thought was worth my effort. Did it ever make a difference?
Sometimes, a little bit. But never a lot and never quickly. My
expectations are low. My hero, the late Canadian feminist and
peace activist Ursula Franklin, had a theory that it took many
years of preparing the ground before real change happens. We may
actually no longer even be there when it actually happens. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">And so it is with
ICANN. It exists -- a unique multistakeholder governance system.
Lots of things wrong with it. But it exists. So, for those who
want to, they can keep working at it, keep looking for
improvement, keep challenging the system. There is no question
that it is at the center of a piece of worldwide infrastructure
(the internet) which has, in a few sort years, become essential.
And there actually is an enduser stakeholder group here. I still
find that amazing. To me, at the moment, ICANN seems a valuable
experiment and I want it to evolve, to get better at being what
it claims to be -- a multistakeholder governance system. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">All this idealism but
I still hate the waiver. May the force be with you (with us) š</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Marita<br>
</font></p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2022-07-25 3:01 p.m., Evan
Leibovitch wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAMguqh26Hwn9EeyhsQCzm-vjjnJMg+6D9WW30Xjm2VHhXJR5jg@mail.gmail.com">
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<div><span class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">Hi
Marita,</span></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Does ICANN
need us there, or not? <br>
</font></p>
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<div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">This 'box of questions'Ā has been
laying open in plain sight for a very long time. It's just
that nobody seeks it until it becomes relevant -- like now
-- only for it to be forgotten again as time passes.
Inertia is strong.<br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">At my first ICANN meeting a former
Board member took me aside and asked if I was out of my
mind. That person accused me of helping give oxygen to
what they considered a public relations facade (ALAC), a
poor substitute for public Board elections which had been
eliminated because it was discovered that the "wrong
people" might get elected. (The circumstances surrounding
that chain of events can be much better explained by Karl
than by me.)<br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">I had originally scoffed at that
former Board member, believing that ALAC could be a true
force for good within ICANN, so here I was. Well, during
my decade or so of intense service to both NARALO and ALAC
I discovered that box of questions. The answers I found
led me to withdraw to my current status of occasionally
launching spitballs from the back of the virtual meeting
room.<br>
</div>
<br>
</div>
<div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">I'll try to summarize my thoughts,
which will be difficult because brevity must reduce
context. But in my observation ICANN hosts three very
distinct sets of volunteers, and its level of need/want
for each of them varies greatly:</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">
<ol>
<li>The technical volunteers, those who fill the RSAC
and SSAC and give other feedback on the actual
operations of the DNS. They are cherished and ICANN
cannot do without them. Whether they are treated
accordingly is another matter.<br>
<br>
</li>
<li>The self-interested volunteers. These folks are paid
by their employers, or they might be self-employed,
because things that ICANN does affects their
profitability, clients' rights, desirability as a
consultant, or some other regulatory-ish issue
important to them. They tend to be self-supporting,
and because of the nature of their work they are very
well-versed on ICANN's culture and both its written
and unwritten rules. ICANN may not like all of these
parties but also cannot do without them, because they
collectively make up the engine that provides both
ICANN's revenue and its authority. CcTLDs are a
special subset; ICANN doesn't <u>need</u> them but
they've really good to have onboard as they may
provide revenue and technical expertise.<br>
<br>
</li>
<li>Everyone else: GAC, ALAC, the shreds of the GNSO
that aren't self-interested, etc. ICANN does not want
them; collectively they are a nuisance that gets in
the way of what staff and the self-interested want to
do. When they demand travel funding in order to engage
in such disruption they also become an expense to be
minimized. ICANN needs them only to the extent that
they publicly legitimize the cult of
multistakeholderism. ICANN indulges their little
outreach and inclusion activities, and it lets them
make adjustments to the detailed minutiae of policy,
so long as they serve the cult, butĀ don't actually
engage in anything that challenges the authority or
direction of ICANN senior staff and the
self-interested entities that finance them. If
everyone in this group disappeared tomorrow, ICANN
would take a credibility hit but functionally it
wouldn't be disrupted at all; that can't be said of
the two other volunteer groups.<br>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">The current iteration of impositions
and restrictions on volunteers in that third group is
nothing new, ALAC and others have forever been treated as
a nuisance, forever having to beg for the ability to be
treated with basic dignity. Threat of withholding of (and
restrictions on) funding has long had a chilling effect on
ALAC's ability to advance any grand user-focused ideas
that confront the Way Things Are. It could not be more
clear that the consequences are very much intended. And
it's not just travel.<br>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">So ... Marita, welcome to the box.
It's definitely not new, the questions really haven't
changed since I last saw them, and maybe not even since
that former Board member revealed them. But just be sure
that you really want to know the answers, many here don't.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">- Evan</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
</div>
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