My initial comments on the ICANN Strategic Plan

[Alan Levin]

I strongly support the ICANN strategy to support "Developing Country
Internet Communities to enable further participation in the ICANN
mission"

Coming from a developing country I assure you that our interests are
not sufficiently represented at ICANN and if ICANN (within a  narrow or
wide scope) is to be held accountable for it's policies in any way, it
must do more than it does now to ensure Developing Country Internet
Communities are included in the process.

That said, I am not convinced that this is for 'technical forums' or
why the change in terminology is introduced. There is some excellent
talent in developing countries that could be attracted as
'non-technical' members of the Internet community. So I am not in
favour of the renaming.  I am concerned about a more narrow call for
this to be purely for 'education' where outreach and communications are
often interpreted as different to 'education' yet have great levels of
impact. Maybe we can remove that first paragraph of section 2...

The other elements of the current draft look like good points. Further,
I am in support of channeling any digital inclusion funds either
through the NCUC or the ALAC. I feel they are bottom up global
organisations and that they need to be supported. By using these
already established infrastructures, there should be reduction in
duplication and increased efficiencies (as opposed to adding any
further staff or structures to the current ICANN).

Kind thanks and well done.

aLan







On 27 Jan 2005, at 20:38, Chun Eung Hwi wrote:

> Dear Milton Mueller,
>
>
> I fully support all points you have made.
> I hope your words could be truly our one voice as NCUC.
>
> Only one thing I want to be taken into account in your statement
> regarding
> new gTLD is that new registries should be geographically fairly
> distributed - that was also our initial consensus among NCUC members at
> the first round of new gTLD. Still there is no one gTLD registry in
> Asia,
> Africa and Latin American region.
>
>
> regards,
>
> Chun
>
>
> On Tue, 25 Jan 2005, Milton Mueller wrote:
>
>> Competition and choice should definitely be a priority for ICANN. On
>> new TLDs, we recommend replacing the term "predictable  strategy for
>> selecting new TLDs" with "predictable process for responding to demand
>> for new gTLDs." Seven years after  ICANN's creation, it should have
>> more
>> than a "strategy" regarding new gTLDs, it should have a well-defined,
>> objective, and  transparent process for adding them. Those proposing
>> new
>> TLDs should know how many are available each year and what they  must
>> do
>> to qualify for one. They should also be assured of a fair, quick
>> response to their proposals, rather than long, indeterminate, and
>> untransparent private negotiations.
>
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Chun Eung Hwi
> General Secretary, PeaceNet |   fax:     (+82)  2-2649-2624
> Seoul Yangchun P.O.Box 81   |   pcs:     (+82) 019-259-2667
> Seoul, 158-600, Korea       | eMail:   chun at peacenet.or.kr
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
---------------------------------------------
Alan Levin
Tel: +27 21 409-7997