Five new members

[Alex Gakuru]

A warm welcome to all our new members.

On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 9:54 PM, Jorge Amodio <jmamodio at gmail.com> wrote:
>> So is NCUC the fastest growing organization in ICANN, except perhaps for the
>> TLD applicant pool?
>
> I believe NCUC is becoming a better "place" where we can share our thoughts
> and ideas, and provide comments that while they can be interpreted as criticism
> are only intended to make of ICANN a better organization.

I believe my below comments make ICANN more inclusive of folks deep
down the trenches.

> Sometimes it seems that in other groups some particular subjects are taboo
> or there are things or issues that nobody over there wants to hear or have the
> guts to say.

I am generous with my opinion, sometimes need someone to tell to shut-up ;)

> It would be interesting, like as you did when joining NCUC, to have a brief
> statement from the folks that join NCUC, so we get to know each other
> better (at least virtually) and the reasons why they joined NCUC.
>
I joined NCUC upon my realisation that overly praised
"Public-Private-Partnership" had so far failed (and is poised to
continue failing) to deliver universal access and affordable internet
and communications to everyone in Kenya. Whereas government(public
interest) and commercial (private interest) are supposed to be quite
distinct, apparently the two often seem to arrive at price high prices
common grounds - higher taxes and increase bottom lines.

Thus consumers carried corporate profits on one shoulder and
government taxes on the other shoulder end-up with additional married
interests atop their heads. This situation then leaves them with
neither to turn to for prices relief. For example, and despite all
those great market-forces theories, telecommunications liberalization
actually resulted in very high prices increases in Kenya and Tanzania.
(calls rose from 1 shilling per minute up as high as 50 shillings per
minute. Today's average is 7 shillings and this affects many on dial
up internet.

ICANN Policies on , for example, costly spam
<http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-23may08-en.htm>
are relevant to us) among others, extending to internet (connectivity
and domain) pricing, policy formulation at local, regional and at
ICANN policy formulation level.

And since NCUC guaranteed direct access to ICANN to *all* internet
policies in order to benefit the consumer, said well and good! Decided
to join NCUC and "start-from-the-top" if that guaranteed internet
consumer-friendlier policies will trickle down to all global locals,
at bottom.

This way "the three pillars" government, business and users can now
discuss surrounding policies on an equal footing - not at the the
current weak scenario if not a deliberate by design structural
exclusion of consumers from internet policy decisions-making. It is
our experience  that those two ever claim to be in partnership working
for the best interests of the individual internet user.

Regards,

Alex