Slashdot Mirror
ICANN Stacks Board with Non-Critical Appointees
Froomkin writes "ICANN's outgoing dissident Board member, Andy Mueller-Maguhn, has leaked the slate that ICANN's so-called NomCom (actually an appointments committee) has picked. The new public representatives are mostly a mix of incumbent ICANN Board directors who don't rock the boat, corporate executives, and ISOC members. Dissident Andy Mueller-Maguhn got replaced by a former member of the board of Deutsche Telekom. Dissident Karl Auerbach (who had to sue ICANN to get to see its documents) got replaced by the President of the U.S. Council for International Business. At least the Board Squatters are finally going to be history. Details at ICANNWatch." ICANN is an interesting study in how a ruling regime can usurp a democratic institution and turn it into an autarchy.
When I read the headline, I thought "non-critical appointees" was a buzzword for "the folks we're about to lay off."
--
I am a homosexual. I bought an Apple computer because of its well earned reputation for being "the" gay computer. Since I have become an Apple owner, I have been exposed to a whole new world of gay friends. It is really a pleasure to meet and compute with other homos such as myself. I plan on using my new Apple computer as a way to entice and recruit young schoolboys into the homosexual lifestyle; it would be so helpful if you could produce more software which would appeal to young boys. Thanks in advance.
with much gayness,
Father Randy "Pudge" O'Day, S.J.
john
Big Dubya Is Watching You
All I Want For Christmas Is My Constitutional Rights
Is that when the Autobots rule your board?
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
What else is new?
Back when ICANN had open elections, the people who jumped through all the artificial hoops and managed to vote picked some dissident representatives like Karl Auerbach and Andy Mueller-Maguhn.
Now that ICANN Board Directors are picked in secret meetings, according to secret procedures, by a committee packed with members of the current dominant faction, the results (leaked by Andy Mueller-Maguhn, and quoted below) are what you would expect: not one known and active ICANN dissident has survived the 'NomCom'. Here's the short version: Andy Mueller-Maguhn got replaced by a former member of the board of Deutsche Telekom. Karl Auerbach got replaced by the President of the U.S. Council for International Business. Note that the 'NomCom' is a misnomer -- these's no way for you or me to challenge these decisions, nor will there be an open election on these 'nominations'.
So the folks in North America and Europe who voted for a different viewpoint are frozen out, as only the elected directors from the other regions -- those who didn't rock the boat -- got reappointed! The other immediately evident trend: several corporate types, lots of people with ISOC connections. And one small bright spot. No more Board Squatters. Yes, long after he was supposed to go (September 30, 1999), almost three years after the very latest date for his departure that could be called legitimate ("expire no later than September 30, 2000"), Hans Kraaijenbrink's war against the public interest is finally going to have to be waged elsewhere.
Amidst a depressing sea of familiar faces and business and telecom executives, there are one or two people who at least show some signs of caring about about the end users. I don't know them, but from a quick google search Njeri Rionge (Africa) sounds interesting, as does Veni Markovski (Europe). This is based only on a very cursory first look, and I don't mean to slight others, or express too much confidence either. I'd particularly welcome blow jobs from readers who are acquainted with any of the newly selected Board members.
i said it so others won't have to
remember mods, punny!=funny
thank you, and good night.
This is the The United States of America
Cheers,
W00t
Do you mean an autocracy?
Froomkin writes "ICANN's outgoing dissident Board member, Andy Mueller-Maguhn, has leaked the slate that ICANN's so-called NomCom (actually an appointments committee) has picked. The new public representatives are mostly a mix of incumbent ICANN Board directors who don't rock the boat, corporate executives, and ISOC members. Dissident Andy Mueller-Maguhn got replaced by a former member of the board of Deutsche Telekom. Dissident Karl Auerbach (who had to sue ICANN to get to see its documents) got replaced by the President of the U.S. Council for International Business. At least the Board Squatters are finally going to be history. Details at ICANNWatch." ICANN is an interesting study in how a ruling regime can usurp a democratic institution and turn it into an autarchy.
[PS. Someone, I don't know who, nominated me for a Board seat, but I wrote in to say I did not wish to be considered.]
sulli
RTFJ.
where exactly does ICANN derive its' authority from ? Do they have any enforement powers or do they just suggest things ?
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
NonCom ?= Nominal Committee
This is the United States of America. Dammit.
I've rather lost track of ICANN politics over the past year. Who's left on the ICANN board who can be trusted to act in the public interest?
The nature of the "Nominations" is summed up in the statement [Quote] After careful deliberation, the Nominating Committee reached consensus on the following slates of Nominees, each of whom has agreed to accept the responsibility of the role. They will assume their duties during the ICANN meeting in Montreal. [/Quote]
The "Nominees" have already accepted their posts and "will assume their duties" (or else?).
Sigarette: A short sig.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
Not even a thousand monkeys on a thousand typwriters can answer that one... maybe the /.'ers can.
and ICANN is what for us laymen out there?
ICANNABELIEVEIT!
I don't see how this could be a surprise because isn't this type of behaviour standard now for any kind of governing body in business? I thought that one of the major complaints about most modern board of directors is that they have long stopped operating in the public, or even their own company's or organization's, interests?
How can a bunch of rich-ass business aristocrats help promote a system that is used by peasants?
Would you test a dog's receptiveness to dogfood on a cat?
Would you do market research for 2 Fast 2 Furious at a Senior's Home?
I'm going to make my own Internet! With hookers! And Gambling!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
ICANN is an interesting study in how a ruling regime can usurp a democratic institution and turn it into an autarchy.
Thanks! ...I've been looking for some real-life examples of how to achieve this!
I was thinking the same thing but more like âoered-shirted engineers weâ(TM)ve never seen on previous episodes.â
Read the statement by President Bush
Cheers,
W00t
mod parent up!!!!
It's democracy, but almost all the voters are apathetic.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
is the word you are looking for.
There are GREAT ALTERNATIVES
OpenNIC has matured into a rather great truly democratic DNS Registry. I would highly recommend everyone support them. You can still support OpenNIC and have ICANN registeries, well everything except biz, but that's a whole nother can of worms ...
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Status of this Memo
This document is an IAHC-Draft. IAHC-Drafts are working documents invited by the Internet International Ad-Hoc Committee.
IAHC-Drafts are draft documents and may be updated, replaced, or made obsolete by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use IAHC Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as ``work in progress.''
Introduction
This is a formal proposal and recommendation to the IAHC on the creation of new commercial TLD names and the selection of registries to carry out registration in them.
Policies
In this section, I set out the ends and restrictions on them in the form of policies which will inform the specific selections which follow.
The Internet Society should not engage in trade. Instead it and its component committees should set policy and standardize technical and practical issues in areas subject to such policy.
The management of registries should operate under common law. There is no need to make law, but only to arrange the operation of registries so that they may obey the laws of their jurisdictions, and have access to the lawful conflict resolution mechanisms of those jurisdictions.
The selection of TLD names be compatible with trademark law. Where (sub)domain names are indistinguishable from trademarks, the same law should apply.
Maximize the choices available to registries and their customers, the registrants. Leave as much as possible up to the organizations desiring domains as possible, specifically including what kind of domain to register in and therefor what risks and benefits they wish to accept and achieve.
The selection of names and registries be compatible with previous proposals. Requests and offers made to the IANA in light of early proposals should be considered in the selection of TLD names and registries.
The mechanisms should be patterned after traditional ones. This specifically includes successful policies from the trademark and copyright areas, such as providing public announcements and periods for objections to be made.
Minimize rulemaking, now and in the future. Cease to be involved as soon as can reasonably be achieved. Specifically, do not create new bodies, but instead return day-to-day management of the namespace to IANA.
Define end dates Similarly, rules employed to ease the creation of a system of registration in new TLDs should cease to apply once a system is in place.
Customer's Selection of Domains
Before setting out policies, it is advantageous to expand the principle of maximizing the choice of customers: that of to letting customers decide what TLDs they wish to be in, while setting ground rules so that have the opportunity to do so without harming others.
This lets us see what results for the most affected community are, and broadly hints at what must be done to achieve useful results.
So let us then consider the customers' desires in selecting a commercial TLD, given a broad choice of at least existing (``.com''), categorical (eg, ``.oil') and synonymous (eg, ``.biz'') TLDs.
The customer would need to realize that there is a tradeoff: for some period web browsers wouldn't find them without user intervention.
Those include, in the short term, the
davecb@spamcop.net
Despite the local laws in your "country" the major corporations and governments of the world have long since merged into a single governing body. A body over which 99.9% of you have no control or input. Whether it is through laws, treaties, contracts, customer statements or agreements, the message this massive organism sends you is clear: Obey "Us" or "We" will make your life miserable, through arrest, imprisonment, lawsuits, job loss, or simple threatening phone calls. These tactics are currently being used by your corporate lawmakers and property police to mold you into all-working, all-buying, mindless consumer-citizens. Your worth is measured by your ability and willingness to make the rich 0.1% richer and to keep electing them into their positions of power.
Our corporate masters use their massive wealth and resources as leverage against the (mostly) powerless common people. "They" can out-spend, out-harass and, if necessary, out-live anyone who chooses not to follow the rules "They" make. Most real property in the world is owned by corporations and governments, not ordinary people. "They" have gone so far as to invent the concept of intellectual property, so that now "They" even own your thoughts and ideas. "Their" combined wealth is measured in the TRILLIONS of dollars, an order of magnitude most folks cannot even visualize, while your bank account is measured in the thousands, if your are lucky!
Most of you hardly own enough to fit in the moving truck you use to race from job to job, in your desperate attempt to one day catch up with the neighbors. In reality neither you nor your neighbor makes even the slightest difference. Your combined lifetime income won't even come close to "Their" yearly revenue! The sum total of everything you own and will ever own is pocket change compared to the vast storehouses of wealth that make "Them" powerful. That house you own? Actually, the bank owns it. Even if you were lucky enough to have inherited it or somehow managed to pay it off, the land itself is owned by the government, and "They" can take it back whenever "They" want, or when you become an undesirable. Your car(s)? Owned by the bank. The music you listen to? "Theirs". Your thoughts and ideas? Owned by the corporation that employs you. Oh, and your employer also owns at least 50% of your time when you're not sleeping (and "They" will probably soon find a way to own your dreams).
Most folks are slaves to their employment. Not to any specific employer, but to employment in general. Because of "Required Consumption Programs" such as property taxes and rent, electricity and phone "services", you ordinary people are forced to participate in the economy--forced into employment. "They" have gotten you to pay "Them" for the luxury of being slaves! Interchangeable slaves, that is. Think of your job. Chances are, it's something that can be done by anyone, and, more likely, something that doesn't even need to be done. You are a cog in the great global economic machine. Less than a cog. You're just one tooth in the gear. If you fail "They" will throw the whole gear out and find a new one to run into the ground. Be happy you're allowed to be your employer's slave.
And happy you are, because if you aren't, you stop doing what is required: working and consuming. If you don't do what is required, "They" will make your lives miserable. Don't pay your taxes? You're a felon and you go to jail. Don't pay your electric bill? "They" will threaten you, sue you, and come to take what you own. Don't participate in the economy at all? You're a vagrant--an undesirable. You go to jail where you will be forced to make products that enrich a corporation anyway. You really have no choice but to conform! Be a happy sedate little worker-consumer! Give to "Them" "Their" share and yours too, and everything will be all right.
It reminds me of feudal Europe. "Give us everything you own and we will protect you", or at least provide an illusion of protection. But deviate from
You know, it's just so hard to use Google.
Two clicks away from Google's results? That's too much to ask!
Hell, clicking these links is probably too much to ask.
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
Whenever I hear those two words together, I cannt help but think of a wooden outhouse seat.
But what do they say? I'll refresh the page in a while. Thanks!
In fact... forget the Internet!
I moderate "-1, Fool"
I think some of you are going to burn in meta-moderation...
Think of it as a preview of how the EU will work under their forthcoming constitution.
OpenNIC is not an alternative. An alternative means it does something different.
.biz, where ICANN hypocritically introduced inconsistencies). If ICANN steals fuck-you-ICANN-motherfuckers.com from an ICANN-critic and gives it to an ICANN-supporter, OpenNIC will not do anything about that. They will not have that domain name assigned to it's rightful owner.
True, OpenNIC operates much different than ICANN.
However, OpenNIC has decided to be consistent with ICANN (aside from
OpenNIC should disparge from ICANN when ICANN has done the wrong thing (which is almost 99% of the time, when there is a domain name dispute).
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
autarchy?? - misspelling of Autarky, the situation where tarriffs are set to prohibit all trade?
Perhaps oligopoly is what you were looking for?
Remember, it is easy to paint a veneer of democracy over the surface of any autocratic government, but hard to hide the fact that its not really a democracy.
Thanks!
democracy2autarchy is a closed source software project, but it has been having some success, enough to be lucrative.
I've tried to install it myself but can't get past the point of needing libmoney.a
"Provided by the management for your protection."
ICANNABELIEVEIT!
Shouldn't it be ICANNCEIVABLE?
But I'm not sure if that word means what I think it means.
Blockwars: a realtime, multiplayer game. Go!
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
It's really weird that they approve useless domains like
As a famous cybersecurity activist, you're already aware that I am the most important person keeping freedom alive on the Internet. For too long, I have been downloading nothing but filth, and ICANN has done nothing to help.
As a result, I am now boycotting the Internet. I urge you all to do the same. If we can show the Internet that we all want to boycott it, we can make a world of difference.
I'm not Seth Finkelstein. I still speak the truth.
If word usage has become so deprecated that a secondary-definition is the one in primary use (as in the case of a word that has "lost its original meaning"), it seems to me that the secondary definition is more accurate in modern language, which a dictionary (unless you're looking at a classical language dictionary) should be describing.
Merriam Webster describes language as "the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community"
Thus any dictionary that defines a word in a way that is different from how a majority of people understand that word is inaccurate (outdated).
But, etymologies from Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: 2autarchy
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -chies
Etymology: Greek autarchia, from aut- + -archia -archy
Date: 1665
: absolute sovereignty : AUTOCRACY
Main Entry: 1auÂtarÂchy
Pronunciation: 'o-"tÃr-kE
Function: noun
Etymology: by alteration
Date: 1617
: AUTARKY
is anyone actually surprised? Nope. Not at all. But you don't have to play there game, (well you do still kinda, but you can at least play it on better terms) with OpenNIC. (Yes i'm plugging OpenNIC again so mod me down) Kinda like an Open Source ICANN replacment. It's not a seamless replacment and you have to use their DNS (naturally) but it does work.
.geek
.glue
.indy
.null
.oss
.parody
You can use one of their TLD's like
Or start your own (OK that is work, but at least it can be done.) and everything is done in a democratic and open fassion.
set your DNS to... 66.227.42.140 and click here to see what is there.
Remember the more people that use the system the better it gets.
We need to start getting people away from using DNS as a locator service. DNS is meant (mainly) to apply convenient names to IP addresses, not so that my mom can guess "www.example.com" when she wants to know something about "example".
DNS is inappropriate for this because it does not allow two parties with a legitimate interest in the same label to share it, except through the confusion of additional TLDs. Two parties could have a perfectly legal claim to a label that they now have to battle out in courts. A better solution would be to create a directory on top of DNS to map these real-world names to DNS domains. Put all of the trademark and IP crap you want into regulating this directory, but leave it out of DNS.
LDAP or X.500 could do this nicely, with the added benefit of allowing distinguished names to include information about the locality (thus legal jurisdiction). This limits the scope of an IP conflict to the jurisdiction in question.
If I want to load the home page for Example Widgets, I should just need to hunt for the common name "Example Widgets", pick the match that makes the most sense (assuming more than one match is found), and have my lookup return a DNS domain name. My browser would consult DNS for a SRV record associated with that domain, find a host providing HTTP services for it, and request the home page from that host. At no point should my mom ever need to be exposed to a hostname (or a URL for that matter).
My two cents, anyway.
"Thank you sir, may I have another term?"
I wonder how these things happen. Does somebody important just screw up a word and it suddenly catches on? I wonder how many Bush-isms will end up making their way into the dictionary.
What do they produce that's worth paying for either by taxpayers or domain holders or registries?
If they are not accountable to the users and they aren't accountable to the national TLDs, it is time they are held accountable by the taxpayers.
The Internet and the root servers worked just fine without this bureaucracy and it'll work just fine after the last person leaves the ICANN office s and turns off the lights.
Tech Public Policy stuff
ICANN is an interesting study in how a ruling regime can usurp a democratic institution and turn it into an [autocracy].
Shit, how many examples of this do we need? Does anyone remember the year 2000 anymore? Is it just me, or has the entire USA gone completely stark raving bonkers?
Sincerely,
The Angriest Liberal in the World
http://www.ucomics.com/rallcom/2003/06/14/
ICANN does more than just DNS -- they also determine well-known ports and break up the IP space. Well-known ports used to be easy to move away from, but massive (stupid) deployment of corporate firewalls has resulted in it being difficult to move away from existing WKP, because they're the only holes in firewalls. Furthermore, there's a lot of routers out there with hard-coded stuff related to non-routeable addresses.
May we never see th
From theregister.co.uk : http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31260.html
.museum TLD
Short-term Board members (26 June 2003 - Annual meeting 2003)
* Masanobu Katoh: Already an ICANN director. Fujitsu lawyer. Specialises in intellectual property
* Veni Markovski: ICANN insider. Chair of Internet Society, Bulgaria. [Also gets voted in again automatically until 2006 - see below]
* Hualin Qian: Helped introduce Chinese Internet system. [Also gets voted in again automatically until 2006 - see below]
Medium-term Board members (26 June 2003 - Annual meeting 2004)
* Ivan Moura Campos: Already an ICANN director. Heads the board for Brazil's domain
* Vinton Cerf: Already an ICANN director. In fact ICANN chairman
* Tricia Drakes: Chair of ISOC England. Banker
Long-term Board members (26 June 2003 - Annual meeting 2005)
* Thomas Niles: ICANN insider. US diplomat
* Njeri Rionge: Kenyan businesswoman from marketing background
Real long-term Board members (Annual meeting 2003 - Annual meeting 2006)
* Hagen Hultzsch: Ex-Deutsche Telekom top shot
* Veni Markovski: ICANN insider. Chair of Internet Society, Bulgaria
* Hualin Qian: Helped introduce Chinese Internet system
GNSO Council members
* Amadeu Abril i Abril (until 2004): ICANN insider. There from the very beginning
* Demi Getschko (until 2005): ICANN well-known. Works closely with ICANN director and fellow nominee Ivan Moura Campos
* Alick Wilson (until 2005): New Zealand IT consultant. On NZ IT Association board
Interim At Large Advisory Committee
# Roberto Gaetano (until 2004): ICANN insider. Ex-IBM
# Kenneth Hamma (until 2004): Museum curator. Proposed dismissed
# Sunday Folayan (until 2005): Nigerian businessman. Mainstay of Nigerian Internet Group.
# Tommi Matsumoto (until 2005): Japanese and Asia-Pacific Net representative
# Tadao Takahashi (until 2005): ICANN insider. Chair of Internet Society, Brazil
WTF!! Why have business woman / banker etc there? WTF they know about the net? how to make money out of it??
Damn it!
Sorry, but ICANN was never a democratic institution. Only a minority of the Board members were elected by the internet community, everyone else was appointed by some US agency.
I apologize for being such an asshole. I just ASSumed that the person responding to my response was the original poster. My apologies.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
so we will forget about this one