This is a copy of my impressions from ICANN Santiago, sent to the IDNO
discussion list . For brevity, some parts have been snipped. They can be
found in our archive on the website.
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To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Letter from Santiago
Cc:
Santiago 27 August, 1999
Dear IDNO supporters,
<snip>
We were not the only ones to miss it. The audio/video server happened to be
down too, for 20 minutes.
So the only record we have are the scribe notes at
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/icann/santiago/archive/
Unfortunately, it turned out to have been the most interesting part of the
meeting, where Esther apparently asked the Board searing questions as to
why they didn't want to heed the GA's resolution to let the IDNO in, or at
least discuss openly why not, and have it please on the agenda right now ,
here in Santiago.
These questions apparently were not answered.
Perhaps the answer was revealed by Board Member Hans Kraaijenbrink, who
said at the 2 p.m. press conference that he had felt to be playing part in
a staged play.
That was a press conference where I was not supposed to be, but thanks to
our good spirit someone had briefly let it slip out at the Markle
foundation's meeting, that took place simultaneously and had attracted all
potential spoilers.
The "open" press conference was a longish walking distance away.
It was a very full press conference with interesting observers and Ogilvy
doing its job.
O yes, when I had asked one of the ICANN senior legal staff, about an hour
earlier if there was to be a press conference, he said no. Hmm.
The Markle Foundation is an 80 year old financial endowment, now interested
to make sure that there will be public/consumer/non-commercial input in any
future cyberspace governance.
<snip>
The Board meeting that was public with a working video link was boring,
with a long string of resolutions passed and again nothing about the
Individuals and their petition for recognition, now twice repeated and
still meeting with stony silence.
More on that separately.
The DNSO council meeting in the afternoon was a shocking display of raw
capture, a united alliance trying to ram through some quick rules of
behaviour for the future NC, and for WG-C, by way of orders to WG-D,
without any semblance of proper procedure. Attempts by the six independent
spirits on the Council to put up some feeble safeguards were crudely and
cruelly brought to a quick vote, where the lack of balance of the Councel
clearly showed.
Dennis Jennings (elected by the ccTLD's) even offered $10.000 dollars from
his own registry's funds
to finance development of a professional set of behavioral rules for the
NC, drafted by an independent firm such as Price Waterhouse.
The proposal was attacked swiftly and professionally by Theresa Swinehart
and brought to an immediate vote, where it died.
The astonished left-over of the GA (much of it now Latin American) was
watching all this powerlessly barely understanding what went on and
wondering why Raul Echeberria and the other elected delegate from Latin
America could not do anything to help stopping this or why they never said
anything about South America.
They were allowed a minute comment at the end of it, under the pressure
that the auditorium now really had to be closed.
They were too stunned to speak.
I had nothing better to add to the audio record than that the council's
balance could have benefited from an additional 3 independent members.
A listless applause from some Latin Americans who understood. Everybody
felt dazed.
For many of them this rapid english with no longer the (superb)
translations of the previous day available, with the jargon of motions,
tabling, seconding, resulting in instant rules appearing on the screen
before them, was just another arrogant display of Northern Dominance
especially when Amadeu and Javier became Chair and Assistant-chair
(Amadeu's vision is poor) upon the departure of first-chair, Michael
Schneider of the ISP' constituency.
They had understood these two very well before, when they delivered in
Spanish and they had not been impressed by any democratic leanings displayed.
"That man talks too much", said someone beside me.
<snip>
I had very mixed feelings when I finally walked away from the Universidad
de Chile.
On the one hand, I was happy to see that even the physical GA, in spite of
the fact that the back of the auditorium had been packed with expensively
flown-in trademark lawyers, could now find favour with us in broad consensus.
That was more than I could have hoped for.
On the other hand, there was this slightly scary feeling that the now
unstoppable momentum of ICANN, in it's critical initial stage now clearly
captured by big money interests, would roll over even the most sincere and
determined attempts to empower individuals in the ICANN structure, simply
because they did not fit into their antique business models.
***************
P.S. I appreciate very much the financial support that the ISOCNZ* (nothing
to do with ISOC) council has voted for our effort in Santiago, and I hope,
also for the crucial upcoming meetings in LA .
Good on ya, kiwi's!
*see www.isocnz.org.nz
--Joop Teernstra LL.M bootstrap of
the Cyberspace Association
the Individual Domain Name Owners Constituency
website www.idno.org
join now and add your voice to the chorus
