[CCWG-ACCT] Time to make a decision (was Re: Responses to Rafael's Questions)

[Andrew Sullivan]

On Sun, Feb 07, 2016 at 07:14:09AM +0200, Dr Eberhard W Lisse wrote:
> 
> the charter does does not say, ship something, anything, to make the transition happen, it says what accountability measures must happen so that (before) the transition can happen, and which ones can wait until after it has happened.
> 

That's nice.  But I would like someone to tell me a plausible story
under which this CCWG doesn't ship something such that the transition
happens, and yet the desired accountability measures happen.  Or, for
that matter, where IANA holds together.

Let us not delude ourselves into thinking that the rest of the world
believes ICANN is a critical institution.  The three operational
communities -- one of them part of ICANN! -- have all come up with a
mechanism in which ICANN and IANA are separated.  If the ICANN
community cannot find a way to satisfy itself that it has the
accountability measures it needs, then the obvious answer is to find
some other way to achieve the IANA functions.  Having already imagined
it, we can certainly reach that outcome.  Yet the operational
communities all express satisfaction to date with ICANN's performance.

I think it'd be a shameful negligence of our duty were we to allow
satisfied communities to go seek other options just because we
squabble.  But I think we should not be sangine that IANA will remain
untouched if we should fail to deliver.

The community pressures are too great.  Something will change.  We can
be responsible enablers of that change, or we can stand by stupefied
while it happens.  That is up to us.

Best regards,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com