Individual representation in NCUC

[Cheryl Preston]

I have thought at greater length about the proposal regarding
individuals, which we received just before our meeting on Tuesday.  I
wanted to concentrate on and be involved in the other issues being
discussed during the meeting Tuesday, so I postponed full consideration
of this proposal until I could read and think about it and take an
official stance.

However, after reading and considering this statement on individuals, I
feel strongly that we must admit individual members as they apply into
full standing, unless they fail to meet our requirements in terms of a
non-commercial interests and goals.

We may want to strengthen the wording of the non-commercial objective,
but I see no reason to deny a vote to those individuals who are clearly
and unquestionably legitimate as individuals who have a civill society
and public interest commitment.  We will be voting, as NCUC, on a number
of important issues in the fall.  The NCUC has been notoriously limited
in representative participation and had extraordinary low numbers of
participation (20+- votes total last fall).  I sense from discussion
with other constituencies and GNSO board members that the very
legitimacy of the NCUC in on the line.  We either out-reach and become a
more balanced representation of the range of valid non-commercial
interests, including families, religions, consumers, cybercrime victims,
etc., or continue as invisible and loose votes in the ICANN system.

I think input from the members on this issue needs to be accounted for
before we vote on accepting this statement.

Thanks,



Cheryl B. Preston
Edwin M. Thomas
Professor of Law
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University
424 JRCB
Provo, UT  84602
(801) 422-2312
prestonc at lawgate.byu.edu
>>> Robin Gross <robin at IPJUSTICE.ORG> 06/24/08 2:20 PM >>>
Thanks, Kathy!   I also strongly agree with the proposal to include
individuals in NCUC as outlined below.  This is a very exciting time
for NCUC and terrific opportunity to significantly grow our
constituency.

Best,
Robin



On Jun 24, 2008, at 12:29 PM, KathrynKL at AOL.COM wrote:

> To Milton, Robin, and all in Paris,
> Thank you for making today's meeting so easy to participate it.
> Milton did a terrific job of leading the discussion today with
> people in the conference room, and others (like me) coming in
> online. The hour and a half I was on the call was a good and
> substantive discussion.  In the end, I wound up supporting the
> proposition below.
>
> I hope the rest of the meeting went as well, and I look forward to
> reading the notes.  All the best in the Names Council meeting and
> other meetings coming up.
>
> Kathy
>
>
> <dear all: A proposition to be discussed at our meeting today.>
>
>
> In preparation for the GNSO reforms, which we anticipate will open
> up both the commercial and noncommercial stakeholder groups to
> individuals, NCUC wishes to extend an invitation to interested
> individual registrants to formally register with and participate in
> NCUC on a provisional basis.
>
>
>
> In line with our previously stated position on GNSO reform, we
> believe that individuals who register domain names and take an
> interest in domains for personal use, and/or are mostly concerned
> with the public interest aspects of domain name policy, should be
> admitted into the Noncommercial Users stakeholder group. Examples
> of such individual users would be a person with a personal domain
> for an email account, a domain name holder with a family web site
> or blog, or individual academics or members of noncommercial
> organizations who find it too difficult or lack the standing to get
> their organization to formally join on an organizational basis
>
>
>
> (Individuals who register domain names for business purposes –
> e.g., investors in the domain name market, small businesses, and
> consultants – and are mainly concerned with the way domain name
> policy affects their business activity s> Until the GNSO reforms are completed, we propose to add
> noncommercial individuals as provisional, nonvoting members. This
> period can also serve as an experiment to see how the
> representation of individuals can best be formally structured.
>
>
>
> We anticipate asking interested individuals to sign a commitment that:
>
> They are not currently members of any other GNSO constituency
> Their interest in domain name policy relates to their individual
> use and public interest aspects
>
>
> We will be announcing a signup process soon.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient
> used cars.




IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin at ipjustice.org