[ncdnhc-discuss] Committee on ICANN Evolution and Reform SeeksPublicSubmissions

[Milton Mueller]

>>> Jefsey Morfin <jefsey at wanadoo.fr> 04/01/02 06:59AM >>>

>This Committee is quite a problem by itself. The decision is to be by
the 
>Board. Having a BoD active proposition committee means that the BoD
will 
>only propose and that the "decision" by the Board will only be a 
>proposition escalated to the true decision level. 

Correct. Jefsey hit the nail on the head.

This committee is fundamentally the Board and
ICANN management talking to itself. This is not a 
formal consensus development process in which we, 
the commentors, have any real standing. 

I could solicit comments from you all on what kind of
operating system and network facilities the Syracuse
University School of Information Studies LAN should adopt.
I could, in other words, ask you for free advice about
how to solve my own problems. Some of you might know
quite a lot about networks and may offer valuable 
advice. But the whole decision making process would be
guided by our own self-interest and our own internal
politics. None of you would be deluded into believing that
you are a stakeholder in our decision. 

Why should you look upon this committee any differently?

Having killed off bottom-up and at-large both, the 
Board is not accountable to the community and the 
community is no longer organically related to the Board.
The Board and management will choose a reform 
path that reflects its own self-interest. It will listen
to comments that reinforce its own sense of what
will be done and ignore all others. 

Some of you may have enough good will toward 
ICANN to volunteer input into its process, just as 
some of you might respond to an appeal by me to
provide detailed technical advice on how to configure
our local LAN. If so, that's fine, do it. But don't have
any illusions about your standing in the process.