[CCWG-ACCT] FW: Fwd: FW: ICANN Board Comments on Third CCWG-Accountability Draft Proposal on Work Stream 1 Recommendations

[David Post]

At 05:27 AM 12/16/2015, Bruce Tonkin wrote:

>We had recommended splitting the text into a 
>simple mission statement followed by a scope of responsibility.
>
>The Mission Statement should be a short and 
>simple statement that conveys what ICANN's 
>purpose is and relates to the specific sector of 
>activities in which ICANN operates.

Short and simple is always a good goal.  But the 
problem is that the Mission Statement has to 
serve as an ENFORCEABLE limitation on ICANN's 
powers.  It is the primary backstop that will 
ensure that ICANN does not stray into areas that 
it should not be in.  If it is too "short and 
simple" it cannot serve that function at all, and 
we will be left with an entity that can do whatever it wants to do.

To illustrate the point, why not make this the 
Mission Statement:  "ICANN shall help coordinate 
Domain Name System operations"??   Short, simple, and accurate.
But that Mission that will not be effective as an 
enforceable limitation on ICANN's powers, because 
just about anything it chooses to do it can be 
seen as "reasonably appropriate" for THIS mission.

Not to repeat myself, but the CCWG Mission 
Statement embodied two principles which the Board 
would apparently like to see eliminated:  the 
"picket fence" and the requirement for consensus 
policy-making.   I may have missed it, but I 
don't recall seeing (a) any good reason they 
should both be eliminated, or (b) any substitute 
language the Board is proposing that would 
similarly incorporate these two principles into the corporation's structure.


>BT:  "Scope of Responsibilities:  The Board 
>suggests that the purpose of this section is to 
>define ICANN's current scope of responsibilities 
>within its Mission and in service to its 
>Mission. It should describe what ICANN does, not 
>how it does it, and must not change ICANN's 
>existing role because that would have 
>consequences for ICANN's operations, 
>commitments, and responsibility to the Community."

What is the point of doing this ?  What good does 
it do - as a means of constraining ICANN's 
exercise of its powers in the future -- to say, 
as the Board proposal says, that

"ICANN coordinates the allocation and assignment 
of names in the root zone of the DNS ..., and 
coordinates the operation and evolution of the 
DNS root name server system, ... and coordinates 
the allocation and assignment at the top--most 
level of IP and AS numbers ..., and collaborates 
with other bodies as appropriate to publish core registries ..."?

What's the point of that?  I would note that 
under the Board's proposal, ICANN would not even 
be bound to comply with that Statement of 
Responsibilities; the promise is just to act "in 
accordance with and only as reasonably 
appropriate for the Mission," which does not 
include the Statement of Responsibilities.  Not 
that that would do much good, in any event - the 
responsibilities are so generally phrased 
("coordinate" and "collaborate") that they can't 
really serve as useful limitations on anything the corporation decides to do.

Nor does the Board intend for this to be an 
exclusive list of ICANN's responsibities - that 
is, there's nothing (unless I'm just missing it) 
that says that ICANN can't take on other "responsibilities" in the future.

I still fail to see how the Board's comments and 
the CCWG proposal can be reconciled - or more 
importantly why they should be reconciled.

David

*******************************
David G Post - Senior Fellow, Open Technology Institute/New America Foundation
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