The Purpose of Constituencies?

[Andrew A. Adams]

Milton and Jolie,

Thanks for the information.

I'm still conflicted on whether an academic constituency would be worthwhile.
If it is needed to help balance the power distribution in NCSG because of the
way ICANN/GNSO views NCSG then it's a necessary evil, given that we had the
formal constituency model imposed upon us by the Board (that's my reading of
the charter process anyway - that NCSG had a majority opposed to
constituencies and that we weakened the Board's requirements for giving power
to constituencies but couldn't manage to avoid them having some significant
effect). We should think carefully as to whether and how to work it. I think
most of the academics here would be willing to work to only exert any power
that came with a constituency in such a way as to counterbalance other
unrepresentative power blocs rather than to try to exert our own power. While
the academics might have other personal interests, of course, most of us I
think are here because we have an interest in trying to make ICANN fairer and
better run. On balance, therefore, with some careful drafting of a charter I
might be willing to support an academic constituency.



--
Professor Andrew A Adams                      aaa at meiji.ac.jp
Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration,  and
Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics
Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan       http://www.a-cubed.info/