Please consider that we speak about global democracy, with 8 billion people. Multistakeholderism is one of the many ways of finding a - still crippled - solution. Better ideas are needed, no question, but bear in mind that getting sufficient participation in online voting seems still illusory. In the world of international law, trying to include all stakeholders, is a strong improvement to one state, one vote - that is still dominates but does not produce much results anymore, moving to the liberum veto of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Engaged groups (parties, trade unions, lobbies etc.) dominate democracy nowadays, and the BWG is one of them. Let's focus on then and improved the dialogue with these engaged groups, e.g. lobbyismus with transparency and also a strong say of groups representing at-large (trying to do a better job than now). Erich SCHWEIGHOFER Erich Prof. (Uni Wien, Legal Informatics, European Law, Multistakeholder Law) MBA Dr. (law) Dr. (informatics) "pre-MAIS" (International Studies) (on leave for the European Commission, Rue de la Loi 130, 1040 Brussel BE, erich.schweighofer@ec.europa.eu, Tel. +32 2 29 52283) Legal Informatics at Vienna University chair: ARI Arbeitsgruppe Rechtsinformatik, Juridicum, Universität Wien chair: iris-conferences.eu President: RI@ LII-Austria CEILI RARI SLib WZRI Department for European, International and Comparative Law, Schottenbastei 10-16/2/5, Zi. 546, 1010 Wien AT, Tel. +43 1 4277 35305 https://rechtsinformatik.univie.ac.at, https://rechtsinformatik.ACADEMY, https://iris-conferences.eu, https://wzri.eu office@rechtsinformatik.ACADEMY; office@iris-conferences.eu; Erich.Schweighofer@univie.ac.at --- Bitte um Teilnahme und Beiträge / Call for contributions and participation: IRI§23 Internationales Rechtsinformatik Symposion 2023, 22.-25.02.23, Salzburg, https://iris-conferences.eu/iris23 Papers bis 31.10.2022 Jusletter IT http://jusletter-it.eu Schriftenreihe Arbeitsgruppe Rechtsinformatik, rechtsinformatik.ACADEMY & IRIS-Journal: https://irisj.eu PHAIDRA ________________________________________ Von: At-Large [at-large-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] im Auftrag von Karl Auerbach via At-Large [at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org] Gesendet: Dienstag, 2. August 2022 03:02 An: Antony Van Couvering; Evan Leibovitch Cc: At Large Betreff: Re: [At-Large] Multistakeholderism Explained (was Re: ICANN75: Mandatory Funded Traveler Registration for Roberto Gaetano) First, I agree with Evan L. that one physical meeting a year would be a good thing. DNS names are slowly fading from popular view; consequently ICANN's footprint is diminishing (despite attempts by the corporation to expand into new areas.) And in this era of viral risks, bouncing economics, miserable travel ('cept for those with their own G6 or 400' yacht), and brinkmanship politics people are worn out and their purses are getting light. However, it does seem that those of like mind (or better yet, of compromising/inventive mind) ought to gather of their own accord and means; there is no need to wait for Mother ICANN to call people to meet. For decades, ever since before ICANN came into being, a small group of us, the Boston Working Group (BWG), have chatted and sometimes have physically met, to express and perhaps work out differences, share ideas. There is no reason why arbitrary groups interested in ICANN matters can not do that and afterwords present the results of their work, which would be all the more compelling because of the weight of their distillation of thoughtful discourse. Second, regarding Antony V.C.'s comment about the ALAC - and the ICANN interested public in general - speaking with one voice. It could. And that voice ought to carry the weight of a steel driving sledge in the hands of John Henry. But it does not. And why not? Because ICANN has drowned that public voice under the diluting force of stakeholderism (multi or not). ICANN's non-public "stakeholders" are pre-formed, much like a MacDonald's "chicken" MacNugget is forged out of similar parts into a single entity. In the case of MacNuggets, the pieces are arguably all from chickens. In ICANN the pieces are put into pigeonholes on the basis of economic interest or type of business - trademark owners go here, domain name registries go there - And each of those "stakeholder" groups, in the ICANN universe, gets a voice that paraphrase Bob Dylan's words, does not merely talk, it swears, it screams, at volume level 11. It's no wonder that the voice of the public is drowned out and not heard. One piece of the theory of democracy is that every person is a cauldron of competing interests that seethe, fight, and blend. Only each person can speak as to the result of that process. That is why each person gets one vote. Stakeholderism, however, follows another track, a track that, to my mind, that is unstable and that ultimately degrades into governance by most affluent. To my mind stakerholderism based decision making is like asking me what I'd like to do next Saturday night. My left leg might respond "we should go the the Ibis on Lake Como" while my right leg might say "there's a beach party at Cabo, let's go!" and my arms might say "but we have great tickets for Twelfth Night in Santa Cruz!" That's not going to lead to good decisions or a peaceful acceptance of whatever does burble out of that chaos. Ultimately all of ICANN's commercial "stakeholders" are composed of people - corporations are composed of people, bodies of lawyers are composed of people. Those people are totally free to join ALAC (or the public voice of those interested in ICANN) and express their points of view - the sum of their interests - as their one individual and single vote. Commercial interests need no encouragement from ICANN to form aggregates - they will do so of their own accord and interest. There is no need for ICANN to help or to pre-recognize and award those aggregates with a voice in addition to that of their individual human members. --karl-- _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org _______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.