[ga] Performance of ICANN Staff as Measured by ICANN's Core Values

["Prophet Partners Inc." <Domains@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Michael,

George's recommendation of firing staff members that make poor decisions is
a valid comment. He qualified his comment by specifying those people that
don't do their jobs properly. He did not recommend indiscriminate staff
firings that fail to take performance into account. We're sorry to pop your
bubble, but that is the way things usually work in the real world. Bear in
mind that those people under evaluation are adults who are accountable for
their actions. We are not talking about kindergartners who don't know any
better. As a general rule, people who do their jobs well get promotions and
raises. Those who do their jobs poorly get demoted, cuts in pay or the pink
slip. Officers should face the consequences of their actions just like their
subordinates. In today's news, Patricia Dunn faced the consequences of her
bad decisions at top Fortune 500 company Hewlett-Packard (ranked #11). H-P's
BoD forced Dunn to step down as Chairwoman, due to her faulty decision to
use illegal methods, to acquire private information of H-P Board directors
and news reporters. Exceptions to the rule would be situations involving
someone who is employed by a family member (i.e. incompetent son working for
dad's company) or underperforming employees supervised by incompetent
executives who lack adequate management skills.



As evidenced by the near unanimous public opposition to the proposed
.biz/.info/.org registry agreements, the ICANN staff member(s) who
negotiated these contracts clearly failed to adhere to ICANN's Core Values
and act in the best interests of the public. Let's be objective and rate the
performance of ICANN staff member(s) based on the 11 criteria below.

ICANN's Core Values


ICANN's Bylaws detail ICANN's core values as part of its Mission. In
performing its mission, the following core values should guide the decisions
and actions of ICANN:

      1 Preserving and enhancing the operational stability, reliability,
security, and global interoperability of the Internet.
      2 Respecting the creativity, innovation, and flow of information made
possible by the Internet by limiting ICANN's activities to those matters
within ICANN's mission requiring or significantly benefiting from global
coordination.
      3 To the extent feasible and appropriate, delegating coordination
functions to or recognising the policy role of other responsible entities
that reflect the interests of affected parties.
      4 Seeking and supporting broad, informed participation reflecting the
functional, geographic, and cultural diversity of the Internet at all levels
of policy development and decision-making.
      5 Where feasible and appropriate, depending on market mechanisms to
promote and sustain a competitive environment.
      6 Introducing and promoting competition in the registration of domain
names where practicable and beneficial in the public interest.
      7 Employing open and transparent policy development mechanisms that
(i) promote well-informed decisions based on expert advice, and (ii) ensure
that those entities most affected can assist in the policy development
process.
      8 Making decisions by applying documented policies neutrally and
objectively, with integrity and fairness.
      9 Acting with a speed that is responsive to the needs of the Internet
while, as part of the decision-making process, obtaining informed input from
those entities most affected.
      10 Remaining accountable to the Internet community through mechanisms
that enhance ICANN's effectiveness.
      11 While remaining rooted in the private sector, recognising that
governments and public authorities are responsible for public policy and
duly taking into account governments' or public authorities'
recommendations.



ICANN staffer(s) immediately fail with respect to ICANN's Core Value #1, by
giving the registries presumptive renewal of their contracts, without
competitive bidding by other qualified suppliers. Such a provision removes
all incentives for the registries to do their best. Operational stability,
reliability, security, and global interoperability of the Internet could go
down the toilet and these registries would continue to get their contracts
renewed in perpetuity. They also failed to adhere to ICANN's Core Values #5
and #6 by fostering an anti-competitive environment with the proposed
presumptive renewal provision and omission of competitive bidding by other
registry operators.



Lifting price controls in a single supplier market enables the registry
operators to charge whatever prices they want and completely eliminates
price protection for the public community. This provision clearly fails to
follow ICANN's Core Values #2, #3 and #6, as the negotiations do not reflect
the interests of the public community and are an absolute detriment to
domain registrants in the .biz/.info/.org gTLDs. Removing price caps
regulating a monopolistic registry operator has the potential to stifle the
creativity, innovation, and flow of information made possible by the
Internet; by forcing poorly capitalized companies, organizations or
individuals to either pay exorbitant renewal fees beyond their means or
relinquish their domain names. Commercial use of traffic data in conjunction
with elimination of price controls widens the gap for potential registry
abuse. Privacy rights, trademark rights and other issues of concern to the
public community that are currently unforeseen could be negatively impacted
by such a provision.



NeuLevel admitted on June 27, 2006, that they had private negotiations with
ICANN of the .biz registry agreement, for OVER A YEAR before seeking public
comment. These certainly fail to incorporate ICANN's Core Values #4, #7 and
#9 as the public has been kept in the dark during this time. ICANN
staffer(s) did not seek and support a broad, informed participation at ***
ALL *** levels of policy development and decision-making. Furthermore, these
private negotiations were far from being open and transparent, as the public
community, which is the entity most affected, was deliberately kept out of
the policy development process. It is logical to believe that ICANN staff
member(s) also acted in a similar manner and failed in these respects with
the proposed .info and .org registry agreements.



The lopsided nature of the proposed .biz/.info/.org registry agreements in
benefiting the registries, while disregarding public welfare, shows that
ICANN staffer(s) failed to use ICANN's Core Value #8 as a guideline. It is
inconceivable for a knowledgeable individual to associate the provisions for
presumptive renewal, lifting of price controls and commercial use of traffic
data with the terms neutral, objective, integrity or fair.



In conclusion, presumptive renewal, lifting of price controls and commercial
use of traffic data are provisions that are open to abuse by the registry
operators. In our opinion, inclusion of these items in the contracts
submitted to the ICANN BoD for approval, shows that ICANN staff member(s)
are either incompetent, deceitful or a combination of both. We would like to
point out ICANN staff member(s) wrote a draft summary of public comments
concerning the proposed .biz/.info/.org registry agreements for the ICANN
BoD. It states "The majority of the comments (in number) posted in the
comment forums were in opposition to the proposed agreements." Although the
word "majority" is not false, it is certainly misleading as more than 99% of
the comments posted were in opposition to the proposed contracts.
"Overwhelming" or "near unanimous" would be much more accurate terms for
their recommendation to the ICANN BoD. In any case, ICANN staffer(s) failed
to adhere to ICANN's Core Values #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8 and #9.



ICANN officers can rebuild ICANN's deteriorating image by showing the public
community that they stand by ICANN's Core Value #10 and remove the
presumptive renewal, lifting of price controls and commercial use of traffic
data provisions from the proposed .biz/.info/.org registry agreements.
Likewise, the presumptive renewal and 7% annual price increase provisions of
the pending .com registry agreement should be withdrawn. The staff member(s)
responsible for negotiating those provisions in the proposed .biz/.info/.org
registry agreements should also be fired as per George's original
recommendation. In the event that ICANN officers fail to demonstrate their
belief of ICANN's Core Value #10, we see no alternative than the public
pursuit of government intervention on behalf of the public community.

Sincerely,
Ted
Prophet Partners Inc.
http://www.ProphetPartners.com
http://www.Premium-Domain-Names.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael D. Palage" <Michael@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'General Assembly of the DNSO'" <ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 6:24 PM
Subject: RE: [ga] [Fwd: [address-policy-wg] ICANN Ratifies Global Policy for
Allocation of IPv6 Address Space]


> Chris,
>
> As I tried to articulate earlier, all it takes is one over the top post
> to undermine a hundred otherwise valid comments. I tried to gently raise
> this issue in connection with a previous post by George where he talked
> about firing all the senior staff at the next Board retreat.
>
> Although I did not always agree with all of my fellow Board directors, I
> generally held most of them in the highest regard.
>
> My first Board meeting was in Tunisia and it lasted all of about 45
> minutes, with the Board reading through resolutions with no discussions
> and unanimous votes. Well in the three years I served on the Board I saw
> much more substantive discussion both during the Board's private and
> public sessions. It was unheard of for directors to file dissenting
> opinions in connection with certain votes.
>
> Now you are free to say that these changes are meaningless, but having
> been on both sides of the fence I can tell you that things are slowly
> changing in the right direction. In the coming weeks the Nominating
> Committee will have the opportunity to continue that change in a
> positive direction. You are free to continue chastising a Board member
> who takes the time and effort to read and respond to this list, or
> perhaps you can try to engage him in an intelligent dialog and get him
> to see a perspective that he/she might not otherwise appreciate.
>
> The choice is yours.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Michael