On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 06:01:37PM +0100, Mathieu Weill wrote:
I must confess I do not understand how a Board in general, and Icann’s in particular, can act through anything other than a voting decision (even if it can be a consensus decision, it’s still a type of vote) ?
I don't have any trouble imagining it, but perhaps this is because I work in communities where voting is not really the main decision-making mechanism. For instance, I can imagine a case where some matter has come before a group, and we have to deal with it, but initial discussion makes it pretty clear that people are not supportive of the idea. In such a case, I have no trouble imagining myself asking, "Does anyone wish to speak in _favour_ of this idea?" If nobody speaks up, I can imagine taking that as a pretty serious sign that there's just no support for the idea, and anything like a formal vote isn't necessary. Speaking as someone who sometimes has to evaluate the consensus of the Internet Architecture Board (note I'm not speaking _for_ them), I'm quite sure we make decisions this way pretty often. It's not our only way, but it's something for which I can think of examples in the past few months. Best regards, A -- Andrew Sullivan ajs@anvilwalrusden.com