[ncdnhc-discuss] Esther Dyson on the Agenda Change

[Barbara Simons]

I agree.  Esther's article is also accepting of other outrageous
provisions of the ALSC report, such as requiring people
to have domain names in order to vote and charging them
"a small fee ($5 to $15) to cover the costs of registering
voters and running the election."  She then goes on to say that
they will try to find "outside organizations" to cover the fee for
those who can't afford it.  Yea, sure.

In the Southern United States during the time that African
Americans were not allowed to vote, one of the techniques
used to disenfranchise them was a poll tax.  People had to
pay in order to be allowed to vote.  It's a terrific way to
prevent the poor from voting.

Not only is $5 to $15 a significant sum of money for people
living in some countries, but the entire notion is poorly
thought through.  How does the ALSC propose that the
funds be collected?  Through credit card transactions?
How do they propose to deal with weak local currencies?

The ALSC committee was stacked by the conscious
decision not to include any strong supporter of
strengthening the voice of the At-Large through
representation (at least half of the ICANN Board
members should be elected by the At-Large) and
democratic elections.  The final report demonstrates
how very effective this stacking was.

Barbara

"Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" wrote:

> Actually, the essay is really annoying: it presents the six (basically a
> ratification of the decisions ED voted for when on the Board) as a
> COMPROMISE, when in fact it's siding with one side.
>
> On Mon, 8 Oct 2001, Milton Mueller wrote:
>
> > >From her newsletter:
> >
> > (I hope this is "fair use"!)
> >
> > ICANN has just announced that the agency's annual
> > meeting next month, which was supposed to include
> > a decision on the ALSC's recommendations, will focus
> > on security issues. That sounds very nice -- responsive
> > to current conditions and so forth -- but it ends up delaying
> > more pressing issues.
> >
> > Security is important, and ICANN's member organization¯
> > -- technical developers, Internet service providers,
> > address and domain name registries and registrars -- should
> > certainly work together on security issues. But most of
> > what they need to do is fairly specific and beyond the
> > purview of a policy and standards body. ICANN and its
> > members do need to be aware of security issues, but the
> > details -- especially for ensuring the integrity of the root
> > servers, which are the foundation of the Domain Name
> > System probably should NOT be discussed in public.
> > Regardless,accomplishing these things requires staff and
> > technical expert time ¯ not a lot of discussion at the board
> > level.