Re: [ICANN-EU] Bylaws Version 0.2

[Alf Hansen <aha@uninett.no>]

Hi all,

Thomas Roessler wrote:
...
> 
> While we are on it, what's the general impression about
> consesus-building versus votes?  Andy Müller-Maguhn seems to have a
> very pronounced opinion of this, even comparing ICANN's
> consensus-building process (or what's there of it ,-) to late
> Stalinistic dictatorships...
> 
> --
> Thomas Roessler                         <roessler@does-not-exist.org>


Perhaps what I am saying now is a controversial view on the term
"consensus", but anyway, I say it because it is important.

ICANN should base its decisions on consensus. This cannot mean that
every small and large topic have to be discussed in length on all levels
resulting in a 50% or more yes-votes. This will not work in practice,
and the organisation ICANN will die because it is not able to move
forward.

"Consensus" in ICANN should mean that there is a well defined and
accepted process for decision making, and the PROCESS itself should be
established based on real consensus with votes. When the decision making
process is agreed, the ICANN organisation can do its work without
consulting everybody and without doing elections all the time.

When the process has been agreed and accepted, and we have not reached
that point yet,  the Support Organisations (SOs) and the At Large
membership must be given the conditions to express their concerns and
views as advises to the Board, and the Board will listen and make
decisions based on the Board's own judgements, not based on counting
votes from various elections in some DNSO constituency or some At Large
Region.

The important thing for the Board is to LISTEN to and DISCUSS with the
SOs and the AT Large members, and the SOs and the At Large members must
understand and trust that they are really listened to. When the Board
has made its decisions, one thing is certain: Everybody will NOT be
happy about it, but that is how democracy works. A big challenge is to
build up the SO and the At Large structures in a scalable way. The DNSO
has tried with a Names Council and a DNSO General Assembly. Here in the
European At Large, we are talking about this list to be the European At
Large Forum, perhaps after some time there will also be a European At
Large Council, with elected representatives (and even staff) who can
build structure into the membership.

This way ICANN can function in practice.

Best regards,
-- 
Alf Hansen                     Mail address:
                                 UNINETT FAS A/S
aha@uninett.no                   N-7465 Trondheim, Norway
Home page:                     Phone: +47 73 55 79 00
http://domen.uninett.no/~alf/  Fax:   +47 73 55 79 01