[CWG-Stewardship] [client com] PTI Board Composition: IANA Managing Director

[Andrew Sullivan]

Hi,

On Wed, Jul 01, 2015 at 04:45:38PM -0400, Greg Shatan wrote:
> some fashion.  If we act like implementation is "not our problem," because
> it's not within the four corners of our charter, we are creating a problem,
> not solving one.

If the CWG (and I note, I'm not a member, but just a participant, so I
don't have a vote) acts beyond its mandate, however, that also seems
to create a problem, no -- one of legitimacy, I'd guess.

In other places where I'm active (like the free software community),
the answer to this sort of institutional question is, "Here's my
code/idea/patch, I don't care about the formalities" or something like
that.  But ICANN doesn't appear to work that way, which is the reason
I even asked the question.

> If we wipe our hands and walk away, because the proposal is now in the
> ICG's hands, we might as well never have started in the first place.

I don't see how that follows from anything you said, and anyway I
wasn't suggesting the CWG do that.  The CWG has a formal
responsibility to be available to deal with the ICG, so it can't just
pack up its tent.  But the additional items people are talking about
do not, as nearly as I can tell, fall within the CWG's remit.  If
someone wants to change that, I suggest it needs to be put to the
chartering organizations lest they ask why the CWG is off undertaking
work it was never asked to do.  This isn't to say those are not
important issues.  But it's been painfully clear to me during some of
the discussion in this group that my intuition about what to do when
one spots an important issue is not the same as that of others within
ICANN.  From where I sit, within the ICANN community it seems to be
fairly important to be explicitly chartered to do something before you
undertake it.

This is of course just my personal opinion, and if the CWG doesn't
agree with me I imagine I'll find some way to lull myself to sleep!
But it does seem to me that one ought to attend to questions of
legitimacy in this process.

Best regards,

A


-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com