DRAFT Consumer Constituency objective - comments

[Rosemary Sinclair]

Hi all

Here's an attempt to take the next step - happy for any feedback 

Avri - could we put my DRAFT up so people could make their changes...

I've included the NCSG-EC version from earlier this year (1) and my own DRAFT (2) 

1) Consumer Constituency – NCSG EC comments March 2011

The intended purpose of the Consumers Constituency is to serve as the conduit for consumer interests as they relate those areas of the Internet within the scope of ICANN.  

As representatives of consumers who are using the Internet to purchase or use goods and services the Constituency will focus on the economic aspects of the DNS that impact on consumers’ safety, security, stability, usability, access and other appropriate concerns to ensure these are adequately represented within ICANN policy development. 

As such the consumers Constituency will promote competition, consumer trust and consumer choice. 


2) Consumer Constituency – Rosemary DRAFT July 2011

The intended purpose of the Consumers Constituency is to serve as the conduit for consumers’ economic interests (fraud, spam, phishing, identity theft and privacy) as they relate to those areas of the Internet within the scope of ICANN (registration abuse, WHOIS, RAA, Compliance, new gTLDs). 

As representatives of consumers’ economic interests, the Constituency will focus on aspects of the DNS that impact on safety, security, stability, usability, access and other appropriate concerns to ensure these are adequately represented within ICANN policy development. 

As such the Consumer Constituency will promote competition, consumer trust and consumer choice.

Cheers

Rosemary



Rosemary Sinclair
Director | External Relations 
Australian School of Business | Level 3 Building L5 | UNSW | Sydney  NSW  2052  
Direct:  +61 2 9385 6228 | Fax: +61 2 9385 5933
Email: rosemary.sinclair at unsw.edu.au  www.asb.unsw.edu.au 

       EQUIS accredited for 5 years


-----Original Message-----
From: Beau Brendler [mailto:beaubrendler at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, 5 July 2011 1:16 PM
To: Rosemary Sinclair; NCSG-NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Proposed Consumer Constituency Charter - comments?

Avri wrote:

>>But I still have to say that after a couple of years of this being on the table I've still not heard a really crisp and clear definition of what it would work on substantively that isn't already being followed, however unevenly, by existing groupings and people.  Maybe if there's a new construction with a big sign it will draw new bodies into the ICANNsphere and increase the level of engagement on a distinctive set of issues, but one does have to wonder.<<<

Having written the charter more than three years ago now, and having seen it go through several rewrites over the course of at least three, possibly four public comment periods, I can tell you what you are looking for is in the words of the mission statement:

"...serve as the conduit for consumer interests as they relate to the Internet and defined within the scope of ICANN.  The major areas of consumer interest are fraud, spam, phishing, identity theft, and privacy [defined within the ICANN scope as registration abuse, safety, and stability]; WHOIS; the Registrar Accreditation Agreement and the behavior of registrars, registries, resellers, domainers and other entities [defined within ICANN's scope as "compliance"]..."

This language was written in part out of frustration with the then At-Large, and with the then NCUC. The at-large did not take much of an interest then on these issues; its interests seemed primarily in self-analysis and realizing the dream of new gTLDs. The NCUC, much smaller then, was focused on issues of free speech and freedom of expression, to the degree that its ideology ruled out just about any other issue as co-opted by moneyed interests. In addition, it appeared, to me anyway, the NCUC's focus or hope was to limit ICANN's power and scope as much as possible, and make it go away. Actually, in my opinion, if ICANN doesn't do a better job of enforcing contracts and compelling compliance, then it should go away, because it would then be a big waste of time and money and a fraudulent construct that does more harm than good by pretending to do something it isn't. But it doesn't appear to be going away soon so its behavior needs to be challenged on behalf of the public interest. The contracted parties should not be winning every argument the way they do now.

If it's the name of the constituency that seems to confuse people, well, change its name to the contract compliance constituency or something. But arguments for its continued existence or non-existence should be based on merit, not on whether it may or may not have too many quasi-commercial parties involved. That's just a smokescreen -- the consumer constituency's charter had always been much more stringent about who it would or would not allow to be a member based on commercial ties or interests than the NCUC's or the NCSG's. The way the consumer constituency's charter has been written, you can't be a member and own a registrar. You can't make a principal living off consulting for governments or companies on ICANN matters and be a member. And so on. We need to move past that now.

If it takes constituencies to flesh out the NCSG's scope of policy work to include broader matters than freedom of speech and expression, then new constituencies should be welcomed, not feared. We need more people working on RAA issues and contract compliance and defining registration abuse and the rights of registrants (and how their behavior effects the general public) outside the core group of people doing it now, who also tend to be the same people who are interested in seeing the consumer constituency go forward). 

-----Original Message-----
>From: Rosemary Sinclair <rosemary.sinclair at UNSW.EDU.AU>
>Sent: Jun 30, 2011 3:34 AM
>To: NCSG-NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
>Subject: Proposed Consumer Constituency Charter - comments?
>
>Hi all
>
>Here's the link Avri has set up to the docs... https://community.icann.org/display/gnsononcomstake/Consumer+Constituency+%28CC%29+-+candidate
>
>Here's the submitted version of the Mission....
>
>1.2	Mission 
>The intended purpose of the Consumers Constituency is to serve as the conduit for consumer interests as they relate to the Internet and defined within the scope of ICANN.  The major areas of consumer interest are fraud, spam, phishing, identity theft, and privacy [defined within the ICANN scope as registration abuse, safety, and stability]; WHOIS; the Registrar Accreditation Agreement and the behavior of registrars, registries, resellers, domainers and other entities [defined within ICANN's scope as "compliance"]; and new gTLDs.  The focus of the Consumers Constituency will be to ensure that consumers' safety, security, stability, usability, access, and other appropriate concerns regarding the DNS are adequately represented within ICANN policy development.

>
>Let's get feedback around the version of the Charter that reflects the interest of the people who support the 
>Proposed constituency - we might be able to find a way through or at least clarify the views
>
>Cheers
>
>Rosemary
>
>Rosemary Sinclair
>Director | External Relations 
>Australian School of Business | Level 3 Building L5 | UNSW | Sydney  NSW  2052  
>Direct:  +61 2 9385 6228 | Fax: +61 2 9385 5933
>Email: rosemary.sinclair at unsw.edu.au  www.asb.unsw.edu.au 
>
>       EQUIS accredited for 5 years
>
>