[council] FW: Open Letter to the GNSO Council: Accountability & Transparency starts at the Bottom

Wed May 19 19:23:37 UTC 2010

Forwarded on behalf of: Neuman, Jeff

Dear members of the GNSO Council,

This is being written in my personal capacity, not on behalf of Neustar and not on behalf of the Policy Process Steering Committee or PDP Work Team of which I am the chair.  I ask that you send this to the entire council as I do not have posting privileges and there is no public comment period or forum for this issue (which as you will see is one of the issues I discuss below).

I am writing to you today to express my concerns about a motion that you will be voting on tomorrow regarding the new gTLD process, particularly with respect to asking the staff to amend the Draft Applicant Guidebook.  First at the outset, let me state for the record that I support the substance of the proposals and believe the DAG should be changed.  However, despite the fact that I support the substance, I do not support this ad hoc process which I believe is extending the GNSO Council's role far beyond its role as an administrative coordinating body and into the realm of policy development or at best implementation.  I have expressed my concerns to my stakeholder group, but because they support the substance of the motion and are afraid that voting no will somehow detract from the substance, I believe I will be outvoted even though some of those voting in favor do oppose the process which was used.  I would have posted my concerns in the public forum for this motion, but none was created.  Perhaps this may be an idea for future motions?

The IDNG was formed last year to look specifically at the drafting a charter for a working group to look at the issue of whether there should be a fast-track IDN gTLD Process.  My understanding was that the drafting team was unable to come to consensus on creating such a working group or what should be in such a charter.  At that point, I believe the drafting team should have been disbanded, but that is not my issue for now.  The drafting team continued to discuss IDN gTLD issues and came across what the members of the drafting team believed was a flaw in the DAG, one in which they are trying to rectify with this motion.   I am glad someone found this flaw and I am glad that the members of the drafting team would like this addressed (as I do).   However, the  approach the Council is getting ready to take on this is one which sets a dangerous precedent for the future in setting policy at the Council level as opposed to bottom-up.

The Council has before it a recommendation from the IDNG to send a note directly to the ICANN staff (and by cc: the ICANN Board) directing it to change the current version of the DAG to address this flaw.  Rather than taking that recommendation and putting it out for public comments or opening up a comment forum to address the issues, it is unilaterally proposing to take matters into its own hands and pass this resolution.  In doing so, the GNSO Council it will send a message to the ICANN Staff and to the Board, that it is a legislative policy making body as opposed to that of a policy manager/coordinator.  I understand that many on the Council believe time is of the essence because the next version of the DAG is supposed to be released in the next couple of weeks.  However, please take note that this is not the last opportunity to comment on the DAG.  In fact, there is no public comment period to submit this to the staff now anyway.  In looking at the Council mailing lists, it appears that changes are still being discussed to the motion and I am afraid it is being rushed through.  How can an issue get to the Council and a resolution passed, without ever putting that issue out for a public comment?

If Council members do support the substance of the motion (as I do), then the proper thing for the council to do is to encourage those members in support of the substance, including the IDNG Drafting Team, to send a letter on their own behalf to the ICANN staff either now or during a formal public comment period.  Or, if it really wants to have a letter come from the Council to the staff, it should put out this motion for public comment until at least the next meeting to get input from the community.  However, the Council should not be sending such a letter now to the staff or to the Board without getting such input from the community in which it is supposed to be serving.  Doing so creates the false impression that at this point in time the motion has broad community support.  It may have such support, but without putting it out for comment, you are not giving those that may oppose an opportunity to be heard.   We chastise the ICANN Board for taking such actions, and should lead by example.

As someone who is deeply involved in helping to reshape the PDP and WG processes of the future and one who has spent way too much time thinking about this kind of stuff, I believe that if the GNSO Council votes and approves this motion tomorrow, it will be not only going against the very fabric of what the Board Governance Committee stated was the role of the GNSO Council, but will be setting a very bad precedent for bypassing the policy process in the future.

Thank you for considering my note.

Jeffrey J. Neuman
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