[ga] Sorry, ... we can't discuss this in public

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

It was brought to my attention by a certain ICANN
Board member [????] that another ICANN Board member
[ALEX] was upset that the comments that yet another
ICANN Board member [VINT] exchanged with me on a
thread posted to the General Assembly discussion list
were reproduced by someone else [TROLL] in an
anonymous post to ICANNWatch.

If there is a lesson to be learned from this, it is
that there are those within ICANN [THE BOARD] who have
a clear preference for private discussions over public
debate.  This is why the corridors, rather than the
assembly rooms, are of such importance at ICANN
meetings.

ICANN doesn't want a venue for ongoing public
discussions -- that's one of the reasons why the ICANN
Board structurally eliminated the DNSO General
Assembly.  It's also one of the reasons why ICANN no
longer has an open Public Forum accessible from its
home page.  Sorry, ... no posting/criticism is
allowed.

ICANN constituencies have learned this lesson well. 
The new VeriSign/ICANN .com Registry Agreement has
been posted and yet you can't find any meaningful
public discussion on the issues anywhere within a
constituency discussion list (although there was a
request within the registrar list to extend the
comment period until the Vancouver meeting -- thereby
allowing registrar comments to be made in a venue
other than that of the public forum).

An open public discussion might reveal "things" (and
we wouldn't want that, would we?).  This is why the
registries don't have a transparent publicly-archived
discussion list, and of course neither does the
Business Constituency.  It is also why ICANN doesn't
webcast its "informational" meetings with the
registrar constituency.

ICANN believes that all discussions of public issues
have to be undertaken in secret.  This is why the
representatives of the "people", the government
delegations in the GAC, necessarily have to have
closed sessions.  Secrecy. Secrecy. Secrecy... ICANN
will settle for nothing less when it comes to
important public policy matters (which in their view
should never be discussed in public).  

Negotiations will be transacted in quiet little dark
corners... it's the ICANN way of doing things.

The trouble-makers in this process are, of course,
those unrepresented members of the public that can't
afford to travel to the corridors of power, and that
have this horrible habit of wanting to discuss public
policy matters in public.

ICANN has eliminated the At-Large Directors,
eliminated the DNSO GA, eliminated the Open Public
Forum, and yet the At-Large still persists in sending
public comments and in actually conversing with ICANN
Board members publicly -- when will they ever learn?









		
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