[council] Regarding topics for open discussion amongst SOs and ACs

[William Drake]

Hi

On Sep 3, 2009, at 12:32 AM, Bruce Tonkin wrote:

>
> Hello Tim,
>
>> But my suggestion is that the topic be Accountability.
>
> That would certainly be useful at some point.   There have indeed been
> some proposals that were prepared by a President's advisory committee,
> but there hasn't really been an open community discussion on the topic
> at an ICANN meeting.  The topic seems to get more discussion at USA
> hearings on the JPA, and IGF discussion forums under the topic of
> Internet Governance generally.

NCUC strongly favors making accountability the focus, inter alia for  
the reasons Bruce mentions.  Moreover, it's probably a more effective  
counterproposal to the GAC than malicious conduct.
>
> Part of the issue is defining what is meant by accountability by the
> various parties raising that issue.
>
> Do they mean accountable to a Government or Governments, or do they  
> mean
> accountability to the ICANN community - ie accountable to "members' in
> some way?   Sometimes it seems to me that parties mean accountable to
> someone that they can influence :-)

Defining the topic narrowly will inevitably leave some parties feeling  
that their chief concerns about accountability are not being  
addressed.  It would be better to have a structured discussion that  
addresses the different dimensions in turn.  And in this context  
(probably this is a rather orthogonal view), given the larger global  
political debates---not only on JPA and in the IGF, but also in  
intergovernmental settings like CSTD/ECOSOC and the ITU (where the  
secretariat and quite a lot of governments are getting pretty  
aggressive about expanding its role in many aspects of Internet  
governance)---I would not side-step taking on the question of  
"accountability to governments" just because people find it odious.   
Actually, I think that's a good reason to take it on.

On Sep 2, 2009, at 2:10 AM, Adrian Kinderis wrote:

> I am sick and tired of the GAC throwing stones from a distance and  
> not getting their hands dirty.

So let's suggest a topic on which they would feel compelled to get  
their hands dirty, and thrash it out.

Best,

Bill