Secret Board Briefings a Method of ICANN Capture

[Alex Gakuru]

Civil Society is amazing! They are people that take others rights as
if they were theirs and fight for those other peoples' rights to be
respected. I am so happy to find NCSG my home in ICANN.

It is NCSG that  truly holds the hope of saving ICANN from the real
MONEY capture- the worst form of dependence and the greatest threat to
public interest.

Regards, secret documents we discussed them on one of the PDP-WT calls
calling for staff to publish whatever they give the Board for the
community to have a chance since they always see all of the
community's contributions. Additionally protecting the organisation
from staff capture.

regards,

Alex

On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 1:10 PM, Robin Gross <robin at ipjustice.org> wrote:
> Important new blog post from Avri about how ICANN policy staff continues to
> spread lies to Board about non-commercial users.  Disappointing, although
> not surprising.....
> http://avri.doria.org/post/438544387/secret-board-briefings-a-method-of-icann-capture
> Secret Board Briefings a Method of ICANN Capture
>
> While in a meeting with Board members, a member of my Stakeholder group had
> an opportunity to read part of one page of the Policy
> Staff’s briefing report to the Board from across the table (some of us
> read documents upside down better the we read right side up.)
>
> In this case it was all they could do to refrain themself from standing up
> and yelling “the staff lies.”   The lies in this case were repeated lies
> first invented by the Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG) about the Non
> Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) - that the most diverse Stakeholder
> group in the GNSO was not diverse enough. The same group that seem to stand
> against all types of diversity requirement in every discussion.
>
> That this absurd accusation was made by a group that needs an exception from
> the geographical diversity clause for council member elections was not
> enough to show its absurdity and motivated the Board’s unjust behavior
> toward the NCSG in last years Council member appointments (though we dearly
> love our Board appointed council members and fully accepted them as part of
> ‘us’, the method of their section was wrong and is a slow wound to heal).
>
> That the non commercial constituency was singled out in the LSE report on
> the GNSO as the most diverse of constituencies was also not sufficient to
> put lie to the statement. And now the Staff makes the great lie even greater
> by including it in the Policy Staff’s briefing papers.
>
> The Board often talks about avoiding capture.  Capture has
> already occurred and it is the Policy Staff with its power to whisper lies
> into the ears of the Board that this capture is maintained and cemented.
>  Decisions are being made based on false information.
>
> How many lies about how many things would we find in a proper review of the
> Policy Briefings to the Board?
>
> How many decisions have been made based upon false information fed to the
> Board by the Policy Staff?
>
> This has to stop now!
>
> All Board briefing except those on truly confidential matters, must be made
> public immediately.
> All recent Board briefings on which the Board has based its decisions must
> be released immediately.
> All future Board briefings must be released to the public at the same time
> they are distributed to the Board.
>
> Additionally, in its review of transparency I hope the AOC Review Panel
> takes this pernicious practice to task.
>
> I understand that the ICANN Policy Staff has a new leader, and in my first
> brief meeting with David Olive, I have hope that things may change.  Then
> again, when Rod Beckstrom first became CEO, I had hope that things would
> change.
>
> And my hope is still waiting.
>
> I have admitted my great affection/addiction for ICANN on numerous
> occasions, but I really do fear that ICANN’s soul has been captured by the
> Policy Staff and I worry that it may never recover unless some major changes
> happen real soon now.
>
>
> 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
>
>
>