On Tue, Jun 15, 1999 at 12:53:42AM -0400, Milton Mueller wrote:
> Kent:
> I was in Berlin. You were not.
On the other hand, I was watching the open board meeting on the real
video feed while you were off contending over the NCC. That is, I
certainly saw things that you did not, even though I was not in Berlin.
> The two or three speakers who spoke out against NSI having additional seats
> were all CORE members. The session is on record, by the way.
There were more than two or three speakers, and more than one
occasion when the issue came up.
> It should be noted that all of the Names Council seats from the registry
> constituency are from CORE. CORE and NSI are two commercial entities with
> an economic interest in the domain name registration business. If NSI
> cannot have three seats, then neither should CORE be able to. If it is OK
> for one business association to control three seats from a constituency
> (and I think it is), then the rule must be applied consistently.
The situations are very different. That difference is
encapsulated in the distinction between "being a member of" and
"being an employee of". It might be the case that all the
registrars were members of the Better Business Bureau; that would
certainly not mean that they should therefore have only one NC
member. For another example, many of the ccTLDs belong to
associations -- the IATLD, for example. That does not mean that the
members of the IATLD are restricted to one NC member among them, and
that all other ccTLD NC members must come from some other
association. Membership in an association or organization does not
negate an entities individual rights.
The "unit of membership" in the registrar constituency is the
accredited registrar (plus maybe some others); the "unit of
membership" in the gTLD constituency is the gTLD registry. In all
cases, each "unit of membership" gets to nominate one NC member.
To rephrase that: any entity that qualifies to be a member of a
constituency is qualified to nominate exactly one NC member from
that constituency. This is a simple and straightforward rule. CORE
qualified to be a registrar; it is qualified to be a member of the
registrar constituency. Some other entities also qualified,
completely independently, as registrars; they are qualified to be
members of the registrar constituency. The fact that they also may
be members of CORE is interesting, but not of primary importance.
> As an institution, ICANN needs to be able to rise above CORE-NSI
> factionalism. It has to apply its rules impartially, and develop its
> policies in a way that fosters consensus.
All very true. ICANN *has* risen above CORE-NSI factionalism, and
*is* applying its rules impartially. The earlier rule to give NSI
three seats was *explicitly partial* to NSI; ICANN has realized that
error, and rectified that situation, as it should.
--
Kent Crispin "Do good, and you'll be
[EMAIL PROTECTED] lonesome." -- Mark Twain
