[registrars] Fwd: Press Release of 26/03/2004, United Nations ICT Task Force

[Eric Brunner-Williams in Portland Maine]

Happy day-before-April-Fools everyone,

After the amazing 11-0-1 vote on the WLS issue by the BoD on the 6th,
Elliot came by to buck me up over lunch on the theory that ICANN is a
pretty wonderful, democratic, transparent organization. Milage varies.

The United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force
(ITU) met a few days ago in New York. The press release is at this URL:
http://www.unicttaskforce.org/perl/showdoc.pl?id=1338

What caught my eye was this gem:

	Various private-sector participants reminded the Forum
	that if it works don't fix it, that the best governance
	is the least governance, and that ICANN was making good
	progress in becoming more transparent and inclusive.

There was no mention of private-sector participants having any other
view on the subject.

If there was "least", and therefore "best" governance, Verisign would be
the unified registrar/registry for com/net/org, and there wouldn't be any
new TLDs, and a "Registrar" Constituency would not exist.

The evidence of "good progress in becoming more transparent and inclusive" 
has managed to escape me, for instance I've no idea why any member of the
BoD voted the way they all (but one) did on the WLS question. Which of the
three basic theories swayed them? That VGRS is more moral? That WLS has
more value? That ICANN was contractually obligated?

The words "competition" and "monopoly" do not appear in the press release.

Suggestions anyone? Off-list is fine.

Happy end-o-March,
Eric
USA Webhost/Wampumpeag