The beautifully PDF'd document appearing on the ALAC website is unfortunately more style than substance. <https://st.icann.org/data/workspaces/alac/attachments/8_april_2008:200804051...> I will of course transmit it to the Board if the Committee votes for it, but I think we'd be missing an opportunity to add value to the discussion -- specifically in the area of restructuring of the constituencies and working methods. Do we agree with the restructuring into "Suppliers" and "Registrants" of the DNS? Should Non-Registrant Users be explicitly included? The document seems to be criticizing, but what are we proposing instead?
1. The recommendation that the GNSO’s makeup should focus almost exclusively on contracted parties and registrants is wrong. Individual Internet users make up the vast majority of the users of the Domain Name system. What happens to the names and numbers systems is of great importance to the public. Therefore, the interests of the Internet using public must be a key element in an improved GNSO. The current proposals completely miss this.
I'd say "Internet Users, including those who are not registrants of domain names, depend on the domain name system to locate and stably identify Internet resources. Those users should be included in the "Non-Contracting Parties" group." We say there should be "no rush," but stalemate has already been dragging, for 7 years in the case of WHOIS debates. I'd sure rather see something tried than nothing. References to ALAC's working procedures are unhelpful, without evidence that those procedures are producing useful statements. The most useful documents we've produced lately have come from outside -- and we should be more open to that kind of involvement, not building up yet more working groups to make involvement difficult. By contrast, I think the Working Group methods the GNSO has been using do in fact allow all members of the ICANN community to participate, including those not members of constituencies. We should ask for assurances that all participants will continue to be welcome, and that all will be treated as equal participants in the groups' structure and decisionmaking. Thanks, talk to you soon :) --Wendy -- Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.org Visiting Professor, Northeastern University School of Law Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html http://www.chillingeffects.org/ https://www.torproject.org/