Re: [ga] Transparency

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've got to say:

Where has there been any open platform or opportunity for people to react to these incoming expressions of concern, and - indeed - how could people react, discuss, and contribute to policy decisions if the correspondence which Danny cites was not made public.

Isn't this just keeping people in the dark and excluding them from open process?

Either ICANN is an open, transparent and bottom-up entity or...

... might it just be a puppet of the United States Government and its Department of Commerce, for which it will dance when required, and do anything to preserve US hegemony over DNS functions, and to preserve its own existence?

Is ICANN for the US Government or for the world?

Or - perish the thought - are its policies to be pressurised and directed by right-wing fundamentalists in league with a right-wing administration of a single country?

The need for ICANN's openness and autonomy has never been greater.

And the thing that might safeguard ICANN's independence above all else - and give it some global authority - would be the restoration of elected representatives of the world's internet users to the ICANN Board.

Why on earth were they ever expelled?

Yrs,

Richard Henderson
www.atlarge.org

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Danny Younger 
  To: vinton.g.cerf@xxxxxxx 
  Cc: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 2:46 PM
  Subject: [ga] Transparency 


  Dear Vint,

  It is now known that on 17 June a group known as the Family Research Council posted an ALERT on the topic of the Establishment of the .XXX Domain.  This organization requested that interested parties send the following message to publicaffairs(at)ntia.doc.gov and to icann(at)icann.org:

  "I oppose the establishment of the .XXX domain.  I do not want to give pornographers more opportunities to distribute smut on the Internet.  By establishing this new .XXX domain, you would be giving false hope to parents who want to protect their families from pornography.  You would also be lending legitimacy to the hardcore pornography industry.  Please stop this effort now."

  It should have come as no surprise to the Board that opposition to the .xxx domain approval was emerging as the Board is privy to the email sent to the icann(at)icann.org address.  On the other hand, we, the rest of the community, were kept in the dark about such correspondence until the posting of Michael Gallagher's request which cited over 6000 letters and e-mails on the issue.

  I respectfully submit that greater transparency is required.  

  There was a time when ICANN had an Open Public Forum into which anyone could submit a comment at any time on any topic, and whereby we could all assess the intensity of any emerging concerns -- but that Forum has been eliminated.

  I ask you to consider having all such letters sent by the public to ICANN posted somewhere on the ICANN website so that the remainder of the ICANN community can react to such input.  Allowing us to know who is reacting to DNS issues will afford us the opportunity to attempt to integrate some of these organizations into the ICANN process.  In the long run, that could be quite beneficial.

  Best regards,
  Danny Younger
  dannyyounger(at)yahoo.com



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