Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 18:52:16 -0800 (PST)
From: Sophia Bekele <
sophiabekele@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Regtime of Russia participation in the ICANN IDN GNSO policy group.
To: Alexei Sozonov <
sozon@telus.net>, Bruce.Tonkin@melbourneit.com.au
CC:
gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org, avri@acm.org,
ki_chango@yahoo.com,
nhklein@gmx.net,
ross@tucows.com, Sophia Bekele <sophiabekele@yahoo.com>,
olof.nordling@icann.org, denise.michel@icann.org,
roberto@icann.org,
mxr@yahoo-inc.com,
Alistair.Dixon@team.telstraclear.co.nz
Bruce,
I have a suggestion.
It looks like the next bomb may come from IRAN;) These are some of the groups and others that I have been dialoging with and, whose concerns I led in the GNSO council in the past.
For the record, I credit Bruce, as Chair of the GNSO Council for being very supportive by agreeing to put the IDN issues and the policy development process on the agenda and taking it to the board for us, so our voices can be heard.
However, it appears that no one followed-up on the procedures of the gatekeeper of the IDN WG and why, since SaoPaulo. It is my opinion that ICANN's intention was not to exclude, but there seem to be an organizational inefficiencies and lack of awareness
that excluded the critical groups of IDN to be ignored. I fact I was hoping ICANN would have already created the enabling environment for supporting the critical groups that its need to formulate the IDN policy process.
It may be too strong to suggest that ICANN is 'dysfunctional", in dealing with foreign relations; in that it does not understand international dialog like the United Nations,
due to its western-centric experiences and views in the past; however, the fact that we forged with the IDN WG without ensuring an inclusive environment on its own has given a impression that the gate keeper is also the poacher
.
As such, for lack of mirroring the US foreign policy dominated by world view of illegitimacy and unfairness, as the 'IDN constituencies' seem to voice, I strongly recommend Bruce, that we deal with this urgently at the GNSO Council level
, and if we cannot be able at our level to sort it out and the result is pointing-fingers to the inter department (i.e bureaucracy) , it may be best to raise it as an URGENT issue to the board.
So you are aware Bruce, according to the IDN WG priority topics, we have chosen new gtlds and geopolitical topics as the most critical IDN issues. There are amost 30 people signed up on the WG, where only 7-8 actively participate, and groups that want to participate are not represented. This of course does not reflect on the WG Chair, who is doing a great job of Chairing, but given the complexities of the subject matter, I struggle and hunger for the lack of a rich dialog with people
that have the genuine EXPERTISE to construct a credible debate on IDNs. I say these because I talk with the people that do, and they are not represented in our WG.
The IDN technology was invented in the East and is being debated by the West and the people that have INVENTED the technologies and are ACTIVE in the market are not with us or are not welcomed!. These people are listening to our dialogs and they want to come on board on our next meeting, where the critical topic has ee pointed out.!
We should have a mechanism to bring them on board!
Towards this end, I am not sure if the final output of this WG will also be considered a legitimate and fair view of the IDN debate for our Lisbon Agena. ICANN needs to address these issues urgently in its pyramid world, the rest of the world is getting flat!
Mr. Chairman, I look for your continued eadership, support and urgent help!
Respectfully,
Sophia
Dear Bruce,
We would like to bring back the issue regarding our participation in the ICANN IDN discussions process.
Let me briefly remind our case.
1. We've contacted you first time on November 7, 2006 when I send an application to join the ICANN GNSO Business Constituency.
2. In two days we send our application to join GNSO Business Constituency - and it was accepted.
We met all the criterias publicly announced by ICANN for GNSO Commercial and Business Constituency.
3. I was interviewed by phone later and was told that everything was fine and work was in progress.
4. Then silence... We've send a letter to Gray, BC secretariat saying that: " we've sent an application to join the ICANN GNSO Business Constituency
almost 2 months ago (sao paulo event had passed already) - no response..."
5. Then... we've got response at the end of December - "We regret to inform you that according to the above criteria the Credentials
Committee has recommended your application does not go forward." -
- BUT this criteria DID NOT match pre-established public criteria announced by ICANN for GNSO Commercial and Business Constituency in the website.
And we are not qualified for any other constituency!
It is just not fair and not legitimate - and this is a reason why we're bringing it back.
Looks like somebody doesn't want Russians to participate :)
This is, despite the fact that our company, Regtime of Russia (
www.regtime.net www.webnames.ru ) is the largest independent private domain name reseller of ICANN domains in Russia (.com, .ru and .info etc.) and for many years the fastest growing one in Russia (as I mentioned before, since 2001 , we're selling ICANN domains from MelbournIT among others).
We've been selling some 17 different gtlds and cctlds, including Verisign's Cyrillic .com names for many years.
We've been attending ICANN meetings since 2000.
Our company is a joint venture with the Russian Chamber of Commerce which today is headed by Former Prime Minister of Russia - Primakov.
With our expertise we have an advisory power for the President's Administration and the Government .
We don't know if Eastern Europe at all (total of perhaps 500Million population) exists on this IDN committee - again, it seems that nobody wants us
(Russia - Cyrillic speaking 150 Million population) there! How come?... Is it another example of double standards we have???
Dear Bruce ,
originally we'd been asked (and still thank her for that) by Sophia Bekele why don't we join ICANN GNSO process.
Nobody in fair and legitimate world has anticipated any changes in pre-established and announced public criteria which been done during the process.
So, here again we state that we want to participate in ICANN GNSO policy group.
We do understand that majority of meetings are done already but we'd like to participate al least in the next one
Facing all this difficulties we are not surprised the news we read before about how they solved IDN in China.
Best Regards,
Alexei Sozonov
Regtime.net
Office: +1-604-9839233
Cell: +1-604-7739204
-