<nettime> ICANN update + Andy M-M's early report on BoD Retreat

["nettime's_roving_reporter" <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

     [via <tbyfield@panix.com>]

     [if it seems like there's a lot of ICANN news coming across
      the nettime wires, there is -- with good reason. after new
      CEO stuart lynn made his 'reform' proposal[a] in late feb,
      which would put an end to open representation on ICANN's 
      board, opposition to the current staff and board has been
      mobilized with surprising effect. notably, at the instiga-
      tion of jamie love, the general assembly (GA) of ICANN's 
      domain name supporting organization (DNSO) voted to ask the
      US dept of commerce to open the 'services' ICANN allegedly
      provides to a re-bid[b] -- thereby making it next to impos-
      sible for ICANN to claim, come the expiration of its agree-
      ment with the US govt in september, that there's consensus
      support for lynn's proposal. some say that ICANN, which is
      chronically 'underfunded' (i.e., spends more expanding its
      mandate than it takes in performing negligible services),
      is running out of money. the last injection of cash it got 
      (charging US$50K to 'consider' applications for new TLDs)
      was a one-time affair: the process was far too comical to 
      expect many (or any) companies to apply again, a new appli-
      cation process would suggest that the old one is over (there-
      by opening ICANN to litigation from those who were rejected), 
      the new TLDs are flops, and ICANN's nanomanagement of the 
      process has driven costs up even as profits drop -- pushing
      some of the new TLD managers perilously close to the dotcom
      graveyard. upshot: ICANN may well be running out of time and
      money, and it may have squandered what little goodwill it 
      had earned with lynn's proposed 'reform.' that, then, is some
      of the contect for what follows.                 cheers, t

        (a) <http://www.icann.org/general/lynn-reform-proposal-24feb02.htm>
        (b) <http://icannwatch.org/article.php?sid=759&mode=thread&order=0>]

<http://icannwatch.org/article.php?sid=767&mode=thread&order=0>

   Board of Directors 
   Andy Mueller-Maguhn's early report on BoD Retreat (and retreat?)
   Posted by jon on Monday, May 27 @ 05:57:30 MDT
   Contributed by fnord

   ICANN elected Director Andy Mueller-Maguhn has posted[1] some early
   unofficial notes to the icann europe list regarding ICANN's BoD
   retreat in New York this past weekend. There isn't much stunning news
   regarding restructuring or the @large that hasn't already been hinted
   at (eg: that the increased role of governments on the ICANN Board as
   posited by Stuart Lynn's Road to Reform now looks to be, at least,
   delayed).

     [1] http://angua.rince.de/icann-europe/2002/05/msg00005.html

   And then Andy drops some bombshells, CEO M. Stuart Lynn announced he
   will retire within a year and JDRP lawyer Joe Sims announced he will
   cease acting for ICANN within a similar time period. That might lead
   to some wild conjecture (did they jump or were they putsched?). Andy
   promises more info, including more photos[2] (postcards from the edgy?),
   will appear on his site[3] in the next few days. Following is the full
   text of the post...

     [2] http://www.icannwatch.org/article.php?sid=574
     [3] http://www.ccc.de/~andy
   ________________________

   To: icann-europe@lists.fitug.de
   Subject: [icann-europe] news from the icann board retreat
   From: Andy Mueller-Maguhn andy@ccc.de
   Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 06:06:20 +0200

   Hi,

   just a few notices from my flight from jfk, coming from the board
   retreat near NYC in garden city, long island.

   Disclaimer: nothing officially has been decided, this is a list of my
   notes of informal discussions.

   The retreat in a way was making sense because of it was an open
   discussion about what "icann II" should be, what the outcome of the
   process be etc. We had a less confrontative, quiete constructive
   discussion, just interrupted by more or less a few struggles.

   But (just the most important points):

     no atlarge election of directors to be expected

   for "technical" reasons (donīt know how) the majority of the board
   agreed to not make any direct elections with this year. on the direct
   questions, if any directors would say "no direct at-large-elections
   under no circumstances whatsoever" 5 directors outed themself: stuart
   (lynn), vint (cerf), hans (kraijenbrink), rob (blokzijl), helmut
   (schink)

     the majority of the board agreed to the idee of a nomination
   committee (s)electing board members. status of the discussion is to
   keep 18 board members + ceo (to be discussed if allowed to vote) and
   some rought guidelines for setting up the nomination committee
   (including seats for advisory committees in the nomcom, that means
   govīs included). but on the other hand side the board agreed to the
   fact, that the empowering/selection of board members by governments is
   not an realistic approach (at least for now)

     some important questions like the jurisdiction of the organization
   and the involvement of staff following or developing policys where
   raised but not answered. this means: we should watch the limit of the
   acting people even those acting with best attitutes..

     in the discussion about the principles of the corporation it was
   accepted that the outcome must be a balance of interests when making
   policy. freedom of speech was at least accepted by a majority to
   possibly be affected when following intellectual property ideas. so i
   do think, there is chances to involve NGOīs acting in the area of
   freedom of speech in a "freedom of speech constituency" or however to
   put something on the other side of the intellectual property people

     this means: setting up of the nomcom is the critical issue now.
   taking balance of interests as the goal, identifying all actors in the
   game and their interests and impacts on the game is the job for the
   NGO community in my eyes.And (watch out what comes next before calling
   it good news):

     Stuart Lynn announced to retire in March of 2003

     Joe Sims as Jones & Days announced to step out of acting for ICANN
   soon. He did not mention a precise date/time when, questioned by Vint
   said something like "in the next month or similar to Stuarts
   retirement"

     Andrew McLaughlin announced to be changing his involvement to half
   time by 1st of JulyMore stuff:

     Rob came with an official (?!) paper from the european commission
   (gordon.lennox@cec.eu.int) from May 21st. I will scan this and put on
   my website tuesday night CET as well as:

     "ICANN II - Issues to be resolved" paper from Christopher Wilkinson,
   May 2002

     CENTR paper "ccTLD Requierements for International Coordination of
   the Domain Name System) from Marianne Wolfsgruber, gm@centr.org worth
   reading (online?)Materials and some pictures to be on my site tuesday
   night when coming back to berlin.

   regards,
   A.

   ---

   Andy Mueller-Maguhn, andy@ccc.de, Key ID
   331F978,http://www.ccc.de/~andy

   ________________________

   NOTE: ccTLD Requirements for International Coordination of the Domain
   Name System, edited by CENTR General Manager Marianne Wolfsgruber,
   seems to be online here.[4] -g

     [4] http://www.centr.org/news/ICANN-response.html

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