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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Monday 08 August 2016 04:26 PM, John
Curran wrote:<br>
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<font face="Verdana">snip</font>
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<div class="">Parminder - </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
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<div class=""> ICANN by its function is not a "public
governance body” - it is actually a coordination </div>
<div class=""> body that supports the stable and secure
operation of the Internet’s various identifier </div>
<div class=""> systems.</div>
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Thanks for your response John. I dont see why the latter (Internet
identifier coordination) cannot be or isnt a subset of the former
(public governance) . More specifically, I dont see how, for
instance, allocation of a generic language term, of immense cultural
value, .book, as privately owned gTLD to Amazon, in complete
violation of the spirit of trademark laws, is not a public
governance or public policy issue. <br>
<br>
OECD <a
href="http://www.policy-community.eu/results/glossary/public-governance">defines
Public governance </a>as "<span style="text-align: justify; ">"the
formal and informal arrangements that determine how public
decisions are made and how public actions are carried out, from
the perspective of maintaining a country’s constitutional values
in the face of changing problems, actors and environments" . (You
may just have to change from 'country's' to the 'world's' to talk
about a global public governance function.) Are ICANN decisions
and actions not public decisions and public actions? <br>
<br>
I dont see how the most important and contested functions of ICANN
are of not a public governance nature. If it is were only doing
some technical management, maybe 30 people sitting is a small
office somewhere could have achieved it rather well, rather than
this whole big juggernaut that we know ICANN to be. <br>
<br>
Also note that ICANN's charter speaks about its raison d'tre to be
of </span><span style="text-align: justify; "> '</span><span
class="st"><em>lessening</em> the <em>burdens</em> of <em>government
'</em></span><span style="text-align: justify; "> which clearly
makes its work to be of public governance (and its implementation)
nature. ((I know this term is used specifically to claim tax
exemptions, but I am sure this cannot be a false claim.)</span><span
class="st"><em></em></span><br>
<span class="st"><em><br>
</em></span><br>
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<div class=""> This does not in any way impinge on your main
point: i.e. that ICANN should operate</div>
<div class=""> under very high transparency requirements –
only that it should do so because such</div>
<div class=""> transparency was a basic tenet of its
establishment and remains so to this day.</div>
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<br>
So, if I paraphrase and extrapolate rightly, you are saying that
ICANN is just whatever it says it is, and that is it. No external
cannons of public propriety - like transparency, accountability, etc
can be applied to it. It is sui generis and sovereign in its
constitution. It is these kinds of unabashed political claims about
ICANN that most worry many of us. (And the effort then to extend the
ICANN model to other aspects of global, and then perhaps, national,
public governance - a post democratic governance system.) And
these, explicitly or implicitly, are inherent in much of the
thinking of the current establishment around ICANN. It is difficult
to engage and argue at the level of the details of institutional
structures and systems, when the real difference is at such a higher
political principles level.<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
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<div class="">Thanks!</div>
<div class="">/John</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
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<div class="">p.s. my views alone (and perhaps that of the
ICANN bylaws, to some extent…) </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
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