commercial and contractual constituencies meddling in structure of noncommercial group is unacceptable

[William Drake]

Robin,

Will do, though I may tweak the subject line :-)

Bill

On Jan 16, 2009, at 10:57 PM, Robin Gross wrote:

> Don't think I can post to the GNSO Council list, so will an NCUC  
> Councilor please pass along this message.  Thank you!  Robin
>
> ----
>
> Dear GNSO Councilors:
>
> It is completely unacceptable for the structure of the new NCSG to  
> be defined and shaped by commercial users and contracting parties.   
> Noncommercial stakeholders can and will define their own structure  
> suitable to themselves and not be manipulated by other stakeholder  
> groups who might seek to undermine its effectiveness.  It is naïve  
> and disingenuous to pretend that the different SGs don't have  
> competing and often conflicting interests.
>
> We note that no one has invited NCUC or ALAC to participate in  
> defining a new structure for the Commercial SG, or the Registrar and  
> Registry SGs. This kind of discrimination among SGs will discourage  
> additional noncommercial entities from participating in ICANN's GNSO.
>
> Please note that NCUC has already proposed a structure for the NCSG  
> that has the overwhelming support of the noncommercial stakeholders  
> currently active in ICANN.  We have conveyed it to At Large,  
> discussed its principles in public meetings in Cairo, and are in  
> conversations with staff about it now.  While we welcome efforts to  
> amend it from new constituency proponents and relevant members of At  
> Large, that proposal will serve as the basis for any NCSG proposals  
> that go to the Board.
>
> We have no objection in principle to working with At large members  
> and RALOs in this process, and as noted before we have already tried  
> to include them in our ongoing process.  But we also note that  
> individual or organizational At Large members may also be commercial  
> users and thus ineligible to join a future noncommercial SG, and  
> thus have no legitimate role to play in the definition of our  
> structure.
>
> The Board Governance Committee has made it clear on numerous  
> occasions that Stakeholder Groups themselves should play a leading  
> role in defining their structure. Explicit statements to that effect  
> have been made by Roberto Gaetano, former Board members and BGC  
> member Susan Crawford, and Harald Alvestrand.  This is, quite  
> obviously, the right approach.
>
> Best,
> Robin Gross
> Chair of Non-Commercial Users Constituency
>
>
> 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
>
>
>

***********************************************************
William J. Drake
Senior Associate
Centre for International Governance
Graduate Institute of International and
   Development Studies
Geneva, Switzerland
william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
New book: Governing Global Electronic Networks,
http://tinyurl.com/5mh9jj
***********************************************************

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