[Gnso-igo-ingo-crp] FW: Proposed Revision of Consensus Levels

Tue Jun 12 20:49:52 UTC 2018

Thanks Reg.

My 2 cents is that the difference between 25%, 23%, and 21.5% is too insignificant to result in a different categorization, and that ‘Strong support but significant opposition’ is the proper designation.

Best, Philip

Philip S. Corwin

Policy Counsel

VeriSign, Inc.

12061 Bluemont Way
Reston, VA 20190

703-948-4648/Direct

571-342-7489/Cell

"Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey

From: Reg Levy [mailto:rlevy at tucows.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2018 4:32 PM
To: Corwin, Philip <pcorwin at verisign.com>
Cc: gnso-igo-ingo-crp at icann.org
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Gnso-igo-ingo-crp] FW: Proposed Revision of Consensus Levels

As you say, there's no brightline. I would have expected 25% to be "significant" and anything less "a small minority". I get your argument that "important" and "noteworthy" are synonyms but if only one person objected with what they felt were important or noteworthy arguments, I don't agree that this would mean there was "significant" opposition.

My 2¢

--
Reg Levy

Director of Compliance

Tucows

D: +1 (323) 880-0831

O: +1 (416) 535-0123 x1452

UTC -7

   On 12 Jun 2018, at 12:54, Corwin, Philip via Gnso-igo-ingo-crp <gnso-igo-ingo-crp at icann.org<mailto:gnso-igo-ingo-crp at icann.org>> wrote:

   Resending as I apparently used an incorrect email address

   From: Corwin, Philip
   Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2018 2:54 PM
   To: 'Gnso-igo-ingo-crp' <gnso-igo-ingo-crp-bounces at icann.org<mailto:gnso-igo-ingo-crp-bounces at icann.org>>
   Subject: Proposed Revision of Consensus Levels

   Following up on the statement I made during our WG call earlier today, I believe that the initial designations of support for Options 1 and 4 are incorrect and that they should be changed from “Consensus” to “Strong support but significant opposition”.

   Section 3.6 (Standard Methodology for Making Decisions) of the GNSO WG Guidelines (https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/annex-1-gnso-wg-guidelines-30jan18-en.pdf) describes those designations as follows:

                   Consensus - a position where only a small minority disagrees, but most agree.

   Strong support but significant opposition - a position where, while most of the group supports a recommendation, there are a significant number of those who do not support it. (Emphasis added)

   So the relevant question is whether the opposition to Options 1 and 4 constitutes a “small minority” or “a significant number”.

   Option 1 for Recommendation 5 received support from 11 WG members and opposition from 3; those opposed constituted 21.5% of all members expressing a view.

   Option 4 for Recommendation 5 received support from 10 members and opposition from 3; those opposed constituted 23% of all members expressing a view. That is just shy of one-quarter of all responses.

   There is no bright line test in the Guidelines for discerning the dividing line between a small minority and a significant number, and  reviews of dictionary definitions of “significant” are not of much value in this context. While there can be no doubt that results above 20% are statistically significant, the most common definitions of the term are “important” or noteworthy”. My personal view is that a “small minority” would be 10% or less, but that when more than a fifth and nearly one-quarter of those expressing a view are in opposition to a given position it should be regarded as a “significant number”.  The fact that just three members are in opposition cannot be used alone to designate them as a “small minority” given the very small size of the total group expressing a view – if the responses were multiplied by 10 there would be 110 in favor of Option 1 and 30 opposed, and 100 on favor of Option 4 and 30 opposed, and in both instances the opposition should be viewed as significant.

   If the Chair does not alter the initial designations I will include this statement in my Minority Report.

   Philip S. Corwin

   Policy Counsel

   VeriSign, Inc.

   12061 Bluemont Way
   Reston, VA 20190

   703-948-4648/Direct

   571-342-7489/Cell

   "Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey

   _______________________________________________
   Gnso-igo-ingo-crp mailing list
   Gnso-igo-ingo-crp at icann.org<mailto:Gnso-igo-ingo-crp at icann.org>
   https://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/gnso-igo-ingo-crp

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/gnso-igo-ingo-crp/attachments/20180612/c47659a2/attachment-0001.html>