Re: [ga] ICANN opens up Question Box for Mexico City meeting

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

George,

These are the questions that I sent through today:

Twomey (two years ago):  “What has happened to registrants with RegisterFly.com 
has made it clear there must be comprehensive review of the registrar 
accreditation process”.  Where’s the review?
 
The IANA’s .int registry serves the IGO population without fees.  Will the 
Board direct the IANA to provide registry services without fees to other small 
populations?
 
How does the Board intend to resolve the current impasse over the proposed 
amendments to the RAA?
 
Will fees for new IDN ccTLDs also be predicated on a cost-recovery basis?
 
Will the final set of PSC accountability recommendations be in place and 
adopted prior to the expiration of the JPA?
 
When can we expect to see representatives from the at-large community seated on 
the ICANN Board as directors?
 
The ICANN Compliance Department together with the National Opinion Research 
Center organized a Whois Accuracy Study. When can we expect to see the results 
of this study?
 
Recent Breach Notices illustrate that registrar violations can span more than a 
year before a Breach Notice is finally sent.  Will the Board recommend a more 
timely approach? 
 
The bylaws require constituent bodies to operate to the maximum extent feasible 
in a transparent manner.  Will the Board refuse to re-certify constituencies 
that don’t publicly archive member discussions?
 
A $60million budget is currently insufficient to fully fund GNSO Council travel 
expenses.  How high does the budget need to be before full travel funding 
becomes available?




--- On Wed, 2/11/09, George Kirikos <gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: George Kirikos <gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ga] ICANN opens up Question Box for Mexico City meeting
To: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 8:25 PM


Hi folks,

ICANN has opened up a Question Box for the Mexico City meeting, see:

http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-11feb09-en.htm

It'll be interesting to see whether they respond with more than just
canned non-answers given that they have the time to prepare. Since we're
allowed to submit more than one question, here's a few I submitted (with
perhaps more to come once the next new gTLD Draft Guidebook is published).
If others submit questions feel free to post them to the GA list, and we
can see whether ICANN does in fact answer them in Mexico. Questions were
limited to 30 words.


1. Why did ICANN use its emergency reserve fund to speculate in financial
markets, losing a reported $4.6 million? Emergency reserves are supposed
to be kept in risk free liquid securities.

2. In ICANN's Form 990, Paul Twomey's compensation was adjusted upwards
to
reflect the declining US dollar. Now that the US dollar has soared, will 
his compensation be adjusted downward accordingly?

3. Why is the Board Finance Committee planning an expensive hedging 
program, when it is possible to conduct most of its business in US 
dollars, shifting currency risks to suppliers?

4. One million/year is spent on telephone costs. What's being done to 
minimize that cost, in particular competitive tenders by suppliers, etc? 
What's the cost per minute of conference calls currently?

5. Why was ICANN staff researching George Kirikos' political views on 
President Barack Obama? (as was verified by Apache webserver referrer 
logs) Does ICANN keep a dossier on every community participant?

6. Why does ICANN use For-Profit companies as "comparables" in its 
compensation, when it purports to be a Non-Profit? Given staff's job 
security compared to the private-sector, isn't this unwise overspending?

7. A federal court in California awarded Verizon $33.15 million against 
OnlineNIC for cybersquatting. What's ICANN doing to protect registrants in 
the event of registrar failure? Are other registrars vulnerable?

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.leap.com/