>Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2000 10:51:00 -0500
>From: Michael Sondow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [IFWP] A fool's paradise (aka "The at-large membership")
>
>
>Karl Auerbach and the other at-large directors have, in my opinion,
>been living in a fool's paradise no different from that of all the
>other persons who have allowed themselves - as much from a desire to
>become part of a bureaucracy and for media exposure as for a desire
>to effect change - to be co-opted by ICANN. Joining ICANN, by
>opposers of its policies, means their neutralization and nothing
>more.
>
While I agree that an unorganized at large membership is nothing more than
a democratic figleaf for ICANN, I think continued discouragement of trying
to reform ICANN from within is counterproductive.
We (DN owners, net-users) have to be inside to know what is going on and we
have to be inside to raise objections against corrupt practices.
What is unorganized now can be organized.
If ICANN was so keen to co-opt Karl Auerbach and Andy Mueller-Maguehn, they
would have been nominated by the Nominating Committee.
If ICANN wanted to neutralize a nascent self-organization of Individual
Domain Name Owners, the Board would not have resisted its inclusion into
the DNSO.
Instead, they use every trick in the book to keep them out. They realize
that critics of solid integrity inside the structure, with solid support
outside could stop much of what has gone on until now.
Even if they could be outvoted, the risk in letting them speak is high.
The history of the NCDNHC is a good example. It was admitted ("recognized")
only after you were muscled aside and there was some assurance that its
leadership (David Maher, Don Heath, Randy Bush, Milton and Kathy
Kleiman--voting system controlled by Kent Crispin ) was "under control".
But leadership can change.
They were not able to stop the members to vote for supporting the IDNO.
The direct democracy element in the original ICANN idea makes it still
worth fighting for.
Fighting against ICANN and succeeding, whatever the Net ends up with, will
lose us the chance for direct democracy.
The ITU certainly will not bring it back.
--Joop Teernstra LL.M.--
the Cyberspace Association and
the constituency for Individual Domain Name Owners
Elected representative.
http://www.idno.org
