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Karl Auerbach Profiled In Salon
nomadic writes: "
Salon has a really interesting interview with recent ICANN board member-elect Karl Auerbach regarding his view of what ICANN should and should not become. Basically, he thinks it should be almost totally restructured, and I can't say I disagree with him. And whether you agree with his views or not, I think a lot of people here should appreciate the fact that someone with serious geek credentials made it to the board."
Should you yanks actually manage to pull your heads out of your collective rear ends you might notice that four other individuals where elected through this round of voting. ;)
Asia/Australia/Pacific: Masanobu Katoh
Europe: Andy Mueller-Maguhn
Latin America and Caribbean: Ivan Moura Campos
Africa: Nii Quaynor
North America: Karl Auerbach
I wouldnt exactly class master Mueller-Maguhn as regular, and how far are the views of the other three going to conicide with ICANN's core?
Any bets so far for how long it'll take the board to freeze out any members with more 'extreme' views?
troodon.net
From the article:
right to inquire about and examine all the records, documents and procedures of a corporation. Very little is hidden from a director's eyes. This gives a director an enormous power to know what's going on in the corporation and to expose improper activity.
That is the key - no longer will the goings on of ICAAN remain a secret. They're will be someone on the board who is not part of the club - interested in maintain a 'below the radar' regulatory body which does as it pleases. Remember that the EU elected the President of the German Chaos Computer Club - so KA is not absolutely alone. By KA repeating the doings and debates of the ICAAN to the Internet citizenry at large will shed a light on the motivations and machinations of ICAAN itself. Further exposing its true motivations. These slugs (ICAAN members) like to slip around in the dark and spread their filthy ooze all over in order to seize corporatist control of the Internet - wont it be funny when KA runs around with a flashlight, showing everyone what the little bastards are REALLY up to. I cant wait!
So we all agree that Big Biz has corrupted the US democracy, and our system is failing. Want to fix it? Help rebuild a -real- democracy for citizens. Tell your friends/neighbours/coworkers to:
The guy has some interesting ideas and an actual understanding of the issues involved here beyond what the rest of the ICANN board has, and it's good to see that there is at least one non-corporate on such an important body.
But I have to say, I feel sorry for the guy.
Why? He may have all of these "revolutionary" (from ICANN's point of view anyway) ideas about how to restructure ICANN and make domain names fairer, but he's one man alone on a board with eighteen corporate whores all perfectly happy with the current system. The entire At Large elections were little more than a sop to satisfy geeks who felt, quite rightly, that they no longer had any power online.
Every decision he wants to make is going to be outvoted and quashed by the paid tools of corporate America. How do you think he's going to feel after a year of failure? Pretty bad would be my guess, and that's why I feel sorry for him.
ICANN made sure that the At Large elections would fail to produce any threat to it's domination by corporations. Auerbach's position, whilst gained honestly, is little more than a sham. I feel sorry for him when he comes to realise that.