Roberto Gaetano wrote:
Karl,
In conclusion, I am once again stunned that ICANN permitted money to be spent in the creation of this document.
I don't think that the ICANN Board should go into details like what document the Ombudsman should or should not develop and publish. I am convinced that the actual system, that gives the Ombudsman latitude in the way he/she will use her/his budget is appropriate.
Were it the case, which it most definitely is not, that the community of internet users had sufficient voting representation on ICANN's board of directors to decide whether this is in-scope for the ombudsman than I might agree with you. However, given that it is the case that the community of internet users has virtually no say in how ICANN spends the money that ICANN takes from those internet users then I do not agree that ICANN's ombudsman ought to have the authority to spend what is in effect our money on frivolous purposes, into which category squarely falls that most recent bit of politically correct fluff. ICANN is now hiring a new president on the basis of he/she having run a $100,000,000 (US$) corporation. That's $100,000,000! There seems to be no sense within ICANN that money is to be spent wisely. Rather there seems to exist a corporate lifestyle of lavish and unbridled expenditure. What's next? Ombudsman luggage tags? Oh, that has already happened. I agree with John Levine that ICANN's org chart needs a good pruning and that the ombudsman is a good place to make the first small cut. --karl--