Re: [icann-eu] Good ICANN news?

[Marc Schneiders <marc@schneiders.org>]

On Thu, 12 Apr 2001, at 09:41 [=GMT+0200], Roberto Gaetano wrote:

> >It looks like one of the bodies of ICANN, the GA (=general assembly) of
> >the DNSO, has become more open. It has just elected a supporter of
> >alternative TLDs as its vice-chair: the Australian Patrick Corliss, one of
> >the members of the initial board of the TLDA, an association for
> >'alternative' (non-ICANN) TLDs, like .GOD, .FAQ and .BOFH, which are not
> >controlled by big companies.
> 
> I have some doubts about the statement of the GA becoming "more" open.
> The GA, being an open body, reflects the opinions of the people that 
> participate, that can be different from ICANN's "official" POV. But this has 
> been true all along. The fact that the previous Chairpersons were more 
> "mainstream ICANN" is not a consequence of the previous "closeness" of the 
> GA, but simply about the opinions of the members (or maybe the composition 
> of the membership) at the time of the past election.

You are right. My wording was a bit too lose. Still, I find it a
significant outcome of the election.

> Would the European AtLarge Membership be less or more open if it elects 
> Jeanette (or some telco person) rather than Andy?.

AFAIK Andy is quite positive vis-a-vis alt roots.

> My second remark is that the characterization of Partick being a TLDA 
> officer, althoug undeniable fact, might not be the main reason for his 
> election. In fact, if you see his statement of acceptance and background 
> information at 
> http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga-nominations/Arc01/msg00016.html, TLDA is 
> not even mentioned. It was disclosed on the GA list, but the fact is that it 
> has never been included in the candidate profile, and the people that vote 
> and are not subscribers of the GA list might not have even be aware of this.

If people vote without informing themselves, their votes cannot be
used to prove either their support or rejection of a candidate's
position, I think.

> This to say that Patrick is an excellent candidate, and will do a great job 
> as AltChair, including to bring the GA to more "openness" if this is 
> possible, but this might be not strictly correlated to his opinion and work 
> for alternate roots.

Let's hope that both flourish :-)

> >The Names Council still has to approve this election of Corliss.
> >Unfortunately there weren't enough member attending its teleconference
> >today. So we will have to wait for a vote by email to be 100% sure.
> 
> I am not expecting any surprise.
> The vote taken at the council among the people present was consensus for the 
> elected candidates (incidentally, if you wonder who is the elected chair, it 
> is Danny Younger, while Jonathan Weinberg has withdrawn from the election). 
> This included some 14-15 votes, including proxies. The problem was that only 
> 8 people (less than 50%) were attending the call.
> 
> >
> >So far the good news. Now the bad: the GA has not much influence, let
> >alone any power. Still, it is a start.
> 
> The two things may be connected.
> Unfortunately, it might not be given the chance to "influence" *because* it 
> is an open body :<(.

I am glad I do not understand this. It would say so much against
ICANN...

-- 
marc@pan.bijt.net