<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>sorry, I meant below as my reaction under this thread..</div><div>- - - -</div>Spot on Milton! See: <a href="http://forum.icann.org/lists/soac-newgtldapsup-wg/msg00627.html" target="_blank">http://forum.icann.org/lists/soac-newgtldapsup-wg/msg00627.html</a> <div>
It was just after the Board had decided to do away with the work we'd done on JAS-WG. However, they later on changed their mind and "encouraged us to carry on with the work."</div><div>- - - -</div><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 5:48 PM, Milton L Mueller <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mueller@syr.edu">mueller@syr.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">Avri: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">This report makes me vaguely uneasy and even troubled. I know
that “outreach” and “participation” are supposed to be
unqualified Good Things in this crazy environment, but I find that to be
extremely naïve, for reasons I will explain below. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">In my mind, ICANN is a governance institution and therefore its
task is to formulate policies and rules that bring a constructive order to a
fairly narrow area of Internet activity (domain names). In order to do that, it
has to put into place a representational and participatory structure that facilitates
making good, effective, legitimate rules and policies. But the representational
structure should be populated by an autonomous civil society, not by the
governance institution. If ICANN’s activities actually have an impact on
people’s lives, and it gives those impacted people meaningful forms of influence
over what it does, THEY WILL PARTICIPATE. They will recruit themselves. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">ICANN is not, or should not be, an evangelical Church with a
missionary wing that views enlarging its membership as an inherently good
thing. ICANN should stick to its narrow, technical policy mission.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">The report proposes a standing “Outreach Task Force”
(OTF) that is rather large, about 40-50 people. It holds up the IGF MAG as a
(positive!) example, something that might surprise those of us who have dealt
with the MAG and the intense representational politics that have swirled around
it. Not to mention the factional divisions that have mostly paralyzed it. This
OTF is then going to spend a lot of money supporting the activities of a large
group as they recruit people into the GNSO. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">The report also uses the ITU’s Youth outreach program as
an example. But here again, if you know that program, it is basically a
marketing/educational program, designed to bolster the ITU’s future.
True, it has legitimate educational purposes, as the young people who enter
that program do have enhanced opportunities to learn about international policy
making in telecommunications. But in ITU’s case there is no confusion
between who are the real members to whom the organizational is accountable
(governments) and the “recruits” who receive this education. In
ICANN the line is blurry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">To express my view in the simplest way, I don’t think
ICANN, Inc. should be doing, or should be actively managing, popular “outreach.”
I think the appropriate level of participation and recruiting should be driven
by the external people who have a stake in what ICANN does. Human rights groups
who want ICANN to pay more attention to freedom of expression or privacy should
recruit supporters and bring them into ICANN. Business/trademark groups who
want ICANN to pay more attention to their interests should do the same. What really
matters here is: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"><span>a)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">how fair and
balanced ICANN’s board and board selection process is, </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"><span>b)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">how fair and
balanced the GNSO’s representational structure is, </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"><span>c)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">how well ICANN
translates participation into good policies, </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"><span>d)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">whether ICANN
has the appropriate accountability mechanisms binding it to its stakeholders’
will. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">ICANN should concentrate on those things as a priority, not on some
blind rush to “get more people involved.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">At best, getting more people involved in a flawed structure is
useless because the newcomers quickly learn that the process is dysfunctional
or their efforts have no impact, and they leave. At worst, “getting more
people involved” becomes a way for the Corporation staff to recruit
malleable drones who can be used to undermine or bypass the real stakeholders. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">Note that ICANN Inc. is currently paralyzing new constituency
formation in NCSG because it won’t approve a charter that was approved
overwhelmingly by its noncommercial participants. Note how it uses the alleged
lack of widespread participation in NCUC to manipulate our representation in
GNSO, but ignores a far less diverse showing in the CSG. Those two things by
themselves should make us deeply skeptical of any ICANN-driven “outreach”
program. In the past two years, NCUC did more successful outreach – at no
cost to ICANN – than any other group. And yet what did it get us? Is “outreach”
really the goal here, or something else? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">Note that this report proposes to use the South Summer School on
Internet Governance (SSIG) as a “recruiting” tool. This bothers me.
Currently, these wonderful summer schools conceived by Kleinwachter are autonomous
institutions. They already educate and sometimes get people interested enough
to get involved. If we make them tools or arms of the GNSO, via ICANN funding
or pushing ICANN recruiting efforts, their independence is lost, and so is most
of their value. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">I repeat my main premise: insofar as ICANN’s activities
actually have an impact on people’s lives, and it gives those impacted people
meaningful forms of influence over what it does, THEY WILL PARTICIPATE, you
will not need an “outreach” program. Investing major amounts of
time and money in “outreach” instead of in fixing ICANN’s
representation and accountability is a big mistake, a diversion. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D">--MM</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";color:#1F497D"> </span></p>
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<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"> NCSG-NCUC
[mailto:<a href="mailto:NCSG-NCUC-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank">NCSG-NCUC-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Avri Doria<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, November 11, 2010 12:08 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:NCSG-NCUC-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank">NCSG-NCUC-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [NCSG-NCUC-DISCUSS] Fwd: [gnso-osc] Revised Global Outreach
Recommendations - for OSC adoption by November 24</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Comments welcome so i know what i think.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">thanks</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">a.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Begin forwarded message:</p>
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<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt">From:
</span></b><span style="font-size:13.5pt">"Philip
Sheppard" <<a href="mailto:philip.sheppard@aim.be" target="_blank">philip.sheppard@aim.be</a>></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt">Date:
</span></b><span style="font-size:13.5pt">10
November 2010 03:36:14 EST</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt">To:
</span></b><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><<a href="mailto:gnso-osc@icann.org" target="_blank">gnso-osc@icann.org</a>></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt">Subject:
[gnso-osc] Revised Global Outreach Recommendations - for OSC adoption by
November 24</span></b></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Fellow
OSC members, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">please
find attached a recommendation on outreach from the CSG team, chaired
by Olga Cavalli, in an effort led by Debbie Hughes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">It
is revised based on the most recent round of input earlier from
the OSC and supersedes the version sent to the OSC on 19 October
2010. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">It
is a redline version. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Let
me have your comments with a view to OSC adoption by November
24 .</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">After
which, assuming a positive reception, we will send it to the GNSO Council.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Philip</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">OSC
Chair</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>regards,<br><br>Alex Gakuru<br><a href="http://www.mwenyeji.com" target="_blank">http://www.mwenyeji.com</a><br>Hosting, surprise yourself! <br>