[CCWG-ACCT] Please review regarding IAB comments on Mission Statement

[Roelof Meijer]

Dear all,

In my opinion, this has nothing to do with the IANA Stewardship Transition
nor the enhancement of ICANN¹s accountability.
We should not deal with this.
Moreover, the argument that this is (will become) a fundamental bylaw and
thus ³difficult to fix later² is incorrect. If the community feels that
something should be fixed here, it will be easier than it is now.

best,

Roelof




On 31-10-15 09:56, "accountability-cross-community-bounces at icann.org on
behalf of Lyman Chapin" <accountability-cross-community-bounces at icann.org
on behalf of lyman at interisle.net> wrote:

>Becky and CCWG members -
>
>Because the mission statement will be a fundamental bylaw - and therefore
>by design extremely difficult to "fix" later - the concern expressed by
>the IAB (and echoed by others during the Dublin meeting) is a lot more
>important than it might seem; it's not just a matter of preferring
>different words to describe roughly the same thing. ICANN's current
>mission statement is empirically incorrect; as a simple matter of fact,
>ICANN does not ³coordinate, at the overall level, the global Internet¹s
>system of unique identifiers.² Using the same empirical standard, the
>alternatives (to this and other parts of the mission statement) proposed
>by the IAB are factually accurate. On that basis alone it seems obvious
>that the CCWG should prefer the IAB's formulation to the one that stands
>in the current bylaws, or alternatively should work with the IAB to
>develop and mutually agree upon more accurate wording, and we recommend
>that it do so.
>
>- Lyman and Julie
>
>On Oct 30, 2015, at 5:04 PM, Burr, Becky wrote:
>
>> CCWG Members ­
>> 
>> The IAB has raised a significant concern about the Mission Statement,
>>which currently describes ICANN¹s role of coordinating the allocation
>>and assignment of the DNS¹ unique identifiers, including Protocol port
>>and parameter numbers.  As some of you may recall, in early comments
>>they suggested changing the word ³coordination² to ³support.²  WP2
>>discussed this and declined to modify the existing language in the
>>Bylaws, but provided an opportunity for the ASO, the Root Server
>>community, and the port/parameter community to provide their own
>>description of what policy ³coordination² would mean in each (i.e.,
>>names, numbers, root servers, protocol/parameters) context.
>> 
>> Andrew Sullivan, Chair of IAB, has informed me that the IAB remains
>>very concerned about the Mission Statement.  According to Andrew (on
>>behalf of the IAB), ³the mission statement (including the chapeau) is
>>misleading, has caused us problems in the past, and has been false at
>>least since the end of the PSO [Protocol Supporting Organization] and
>>arguably before that. In particular, according to the IAB, ³ICANN does
>>not "coordinate, at the overall level, the global Internet's systems of
>>unique identifiers.²
>> 
>> This issue was discussed in the Public Forum in Dublin, and Steve
>>Crocker expressed support for working to align ICANN¹s description of
>>its role in this area more precisely:
>> 
>> ANDREW SULLIVAN: Hi, my name is Andrew Sullivan. And I'm chair of the
>>Internet Architecture Board. The mission of ICANN currently has text
>>that ICANN -- and I quote -- is to coordinate at the overall level, the
>>global Internet systems of unique identifiers. End quote. That's not
>>precisely true any more and hasn't been at least since the protocol
>>supporting organization disappeared from ICANN. I'm wondering whether
>>the Board is open to changing this part of the mission since it's open
>>anyway in the CCWG process?
>> 
>> STEVE CROCKER: I think I'm the designated hitter here. Andrew, thank
>>you very much. There's been a somewhat uncomfortable disparity between
>>some of the words that we use to describe ourselves and some of the
>>words that our close friends use to describe us. We have -- and we've --
>>some of us have been paying attention for a while. The good news -- I
>>think it's extremely good news -- is that over the last relatively short
>>period of time, we have built a much stronger technical team, step one.
>>And step 2 is would are we have actually got them connected to the
>>communications process. Harder than I would have liked it to have been.
>>But it's now there. And it's been one of these behind the scenes things
>>of where we've been pressing. So I think that, going forward, we're
>>going to try to align our words in a more careful way. There's always a
>>lot of equities about how many words you use to describe yourself which,
>>you know. But I think some greater precision and adjustment of the
>>nuances is well in order.
>> 
>> The IAB has provided some proposed text, which addresses the concerns
>>of its members.  I have attached a side-by-side comparison of (1) the
>>Existing Mission Statement; (2) the current CCWG proposal; and (3) the
>>IAB proposal.  I should note that the proposed changes appear to be more
>>dramatic than they actually are.  Most of the changes reflect moving the
>>language around.  The substantive changes include:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Current Bylaws/CCWG Proposal
>> 
>> 
>> IAB Proposal
>> 
>> 
>> ICANN¹s mission is to ³coordinate, at the overall level, the global
>>Internet¹s system of unique identifiers²
>> 
>> 
>> ICANN¹s mission is to ³support, at the overall level, core Internet
>>registries²
>> 
>> 
>> ICANN coordinates the allocation and assignment of ³Domain Names
>>(forming a system referred to as ³DNS²)
>> 
>> 
>> ICANN coordinates the allocation and assignment of ³names in the root
>>zone of the Domain Name System (³DNS²)
>> 
>> 
>> ICANN coordinates the ³allocation and assignment of protocol port and
>>parameter numbers²
>> 
>> 
>> ICANN ³collaborates with other bodies as appropriate to publish core
>>registries needed for the functioning of the Internet.²
>> 
>> 
>> As indicated above, a more complete comparison is attached.  Given the
>>strength of the IAB¹s views on this point, I thought it was important to
>>raise this issue for discussion.
>> 
>> Becky
>> 
>> J. Beckwith Burr
>> Deputy General Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer
>> 
>> <IAB Proposed Mission Statement Changes 30
>>October.pdf>_______________________________________________
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