[ncdnhc-discuss] Participation without representation?

[Kent Crispin]

On Thu, Mar 14, 2002 at 03:47:21PM -0500, Milton Mueller wrote:
> 
> There is no evidence that there is anyone other than Kent
> in this Boat Club who gives a damn about DNS.

There is no evidence that anyone other than you at the convergence 
center gives a damn about DNS, either.

It is indeed true that for the most part, people in the potter-yachters
don't know anything at all about DNS.  They are largely older folks (I
estimate the mean age as 50 -- the oldest member is in his late 70's, I
believe) with little sailboats on trailers that they tow to nearby lakes
and bays, and use the net purely as a tool for furthering their
activities.  The potter-yachters is representative of a enormous number
of small organizations that use the internet for practical purposes, and
not to support political advocacy on the topic of internet governance. 
It is a simple fact that most such organizations don't have *any*
members who know anything at all about the DNS.  Such organizations will
never be represented in the DNSO unless some interested member takes it
upon themselves to get involved. 

> That is the whole problem with Potter Yachter's membership. 
> It is just a subterfuge for Kent's individual representation,
> so that he can participate in DNSO to argue against
> individual representation in ICANN. So given Kent's 
> membership in the Business constituency,

"Kent" is not a member of the BC.  "Songbird", a legitimate small
business run by my wife and myself, is a member of the BC.  Who 
Songbird choses as its voting representative is an open question, in 
fact -- it could be my wife.

> if Potter Yachter's
> want full voting membership in NCDNHC they have to put
> forward a representative who is not Kent. If they are
> unable to do this what does it tell you about the
> status of this organization and its interest in NCDNHC?

It tells you that they are a real-world organization, one of the vast
majority of organizations connected to the internet that have only a
very few members, if any, who are interested in DNS.


-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Be good, and you will be
kent at songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain