[ga] Serving Two Masters

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

In his blog, Ross Rader writes:

"I have never seen the community so divided. There are
at least two, and possibly three distinct and separate
camps inside ICANN right now, and the rift is seems to
be growing each day.  ICANN the Staff, along with
ICANN the Board (Collectively, ICANN the Corporation)
are on a distinct and separate page from ICANN the
Community. Unfortunately, the political calculus seems
to have been reduced to ?do we have the votes to move
our agenda forward? and not ?do we have sufficient
consensus in the community to move the issue forward?.
With each issue moved forward on this basis, the rift
grows larger."
http://code.byte.org/blog/_archives/2005/11/10/1372741.html

I agree completely with Ross.  The disconnect between
parties has never been greater, and I think that the
problem stems from ICANN trying to serve two masters.

The DOC has always wanted certain things from ICANN,
particularly contracts.  The DOC has insisted on
attaining formal legal agreements with the RIRs,
contracts with all of the ccTLDs, contracts with all
the root server operators, contracts to ensure the
financial and personnel resources to meet the
responsibilities of DNS management, etc... the DOC is
clearly in love with the concept of management by
contract.

The Internet community, however, takes an opposing
point of view. The ccTLDs have made it clear that they
won't be a part of a contract-based regime, as have
the root-server operators.  

But that hasn't stopped the DOC from pushing its point
of view, which results in ongoing pressure upon ICANN
especially as it moves closer to the scheduled
termination of its MOU.  

We have seen how ICANN has responded to this pressure
in the past.  It has used the IANA as a surrogate to
apply pressure on the ccTLDs, and it now is using the
.com settlement agreement to pressure the community
into a unwanted deal which does nothing more than
allay the DOC's concerns with respect to ICANN's
financial stability.

ICANN has become nothing more than the lapdog of the
U.S. Department of Commerce.  It's decisions are
predicated moreso upon the desires of the DOC than
upon the consensus of the community it serves.

As Ross says in his blog:  "I?m still a big believer
in ICANN, but now, that seems to have been reduced to
belief in ?ICANN the Principles?."

ditto.




		
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