Since this bounced from the mailgroup I was trying to send it to, in response to the ICANN structures analysis...<br><br>I think there are 3 fundamentals that define everything I&#39;ve been exposed to regarding ICANN and its structures:
<br><br>1- Lack of legitimacy<br>While
on paper, the structure and operating principles of ICANN seem sound,
in practice there is little or no formal legitimacy for anything except
the MOU with the US Dept. of Commerce.&nbsp; I think this harms ICANN and
the Internet as a whole.&nbsp; Working down to the ALSs, there has been work
but little progress toward incorporating them into ICANN
policymanking.&nbsp; This makes things difficult for the ALSs to grow and
prove their legitimacy and therefore to operate as an organization.&nbsp; It
is imperative for ICANN to chart the course rather than ALSs charting
the course, because we can all end up going in different directions
with little real benefit for anyone.&nbsp; In regard to our ALS,
America@Large, we have struggled to gain legitimacy every step of the
way and without ICANN support we cannot gain the spport needed to
properly form and maintain a nonprofit structure with our (ICANNs)
goals in mind.<br>
<br>2- Hypocrisy<br>In order for anyone to take ICANN or its structures
seriously, ICANN must begin making moves toward less hypocrisy.&nbsp; An
excellent example is the recent 3-year-long discussion on .xxx.&nbsp; ICANN
states that .xxx extension was not approved because it felt that it
would lead ICANN into &quot; the business of content regulation.&quot;&nbsp; However,
most of the other TLDs approved have some type of content regulation
built in, similar to .xxx.&nbsp; How about .cat - a domain specifically
designed for those in the Catalin region, or .mobi - content which is
formatted for mobile devices, or .edu - content directly associated
with accredited educational institutions, or .museum - content for
museums, or any other extension that defines a particular category like
.aero, .jobs, .etc.&nbsp; I would seem that the decisions came more from
outside ICANN than from within the formal structures.&nbsp; The fact that
the proposed content was to be adult oriented in nature seems to have
weighed more than the importance of managing the DNS, and by default
ICANN came into the business of content regulation and censorship.
<br><br>3- Formality<br>ICANN, on one hand creates formal structures
to help facilitate the process, whatever that may be.&nbsp; On the other
hand, the formal measures of these processes seems opaque.&nbsp; Input is
received and processed in an arbitrary manner.&nbsp; This discussion group
we are now using is a valuable contribution.&nbsp; However, I think more is
needed to consolidate the thoughts and discussions relative to this
process.&nbsp; What I feel is needed is a formal process for identifying and
discussion and arriving at the end of a discussion.&nbsp; The current
situation is more of an ad hoc discussion with no real goal in mind -it
seems.&nbsp; On one hand, this is good in the nature of discussing an issue,
but I wonder if there will be a way to arrive at a conclusion to any
given issue.
<br><br>Thanks!<br><br>-Randy Glass <br>A@L