Restructuring the GNSO -- your comments are needed

[Norbert Klein]

Danny Younger wrote:
> >From the LSE Report:
>
> 4.35 In tandem with Recommendation 5 above that
> individuals' and organizations' primary membership
> should be of ICANN as a whole rather than of specific
> constituencies, we suggest creating a simpler
> Constituency structure with only three main divisions:
>
> -- Registration, including the current Registries and
> Registrars Constituencies;
> -- Business Users, including the current Business,
> Intellectual Property and ISP Constituencies; and
> -- Civil Society, including the current NCUC, but also
> ordinary domain holders, and possibly individuals
> currently represented via the At Large Advisory
> Committee of ICANN.
>
> -----------------------
>
> Do NCUC members support this recommendation?
>
I am speaking personally - there is no formal position, as far as I can
see. But we had - at least since the Mar del Plata ICANN in April 2005 -
held some joint meetings between NCUC and ALAC persons present, where
we, from the NCUC side, were more outspoke in our interest to see a
common civil society grouping within ICANN, as a means to strengthen our
voice. This did not include the suggestion to merge ALAC and NCUC.
Reference was often made to the civil society caucus at WSIS and WSIS
Prepcom meetings, which brought many voices together and had some
positive impact.

I had the impression that there was much more reluctance on the side of
ALAC, because some people in ALAC felt that they have a firmer position
within ICANN (and more recently being also clearly in the ICANN
budgetary support considerations). I could not help to have the
impression that a lot of energy was used within ALAC on structure
building, while NCUC had brought more substance into the ICANN
processes, through the focus on the WHOIS and Privacy concerns -
especially through the special workshop well organized and well
participated at the Vancouver meeting.

I do not yet have seen much of a feedback opinion from Registration and
Business users - at present there are some overlappings in their fields,
and it might lead to some streamlining and some balancing out if we had
three - and Civil Society would be one of the three. I think the civil
society voice could be stronger in ICANN with the new proposal of three
elements.

Any other voices - please.


Norbert