[council] Re: Recent BC Membership Decision

["Milton Mueller" <Mueller@syr.edu>]

This is a very disappointing development. I would 
strongly urge the B&C to reconsider its decision and 
its policies.

Companies should not be excluded from
participation in the DNSO constituency structure
simply because they advocate views that other
members don't agree with.

As the NC Chair knows, I objected to the Final Report of
the DNSO Review Task Force and entered a minority report
questioning the "representative" character of the DNSO
constituency structure. My objections concerned the great 
degree of overlap between certain constituencies and the 
refusal to recognize new constituencies and open working 
groups. 

This situation is worse than that. It seems
to indicate that membership in constituencies 
and access to the process can be denied based on 
whether the people who are currently in control agree
with you. In other words, not only is the structure 
tilted toward business interests, but it seems to be rigged 
to prevent even divisions WITHIN the business community
from being aired and resolved! That kind of a closed, 
self-reinforcing structure can only produce bad policies. 
It drastically undermines the legitimacy of the DNSO 
and ICANN.

When the gTLD constituency was formed I proposed 
making it possible for prospective registries to be 
members of the gTLD constituency - essentially, anyone 
who had paid the $50,000 application fee to 
participate in ICANN's new TLD process. 

Those companies are legitimate stakeholders who
deserve to have a voice. And yet, our existing
structure makes no room for them. It is, as I
said at the time, equivalent to allowing Ford,
General Motors, Toyota and Honda decide who
gets the enter the auto manufacturing business.

So, excluded from participating in that venue 
they try to join the general Business constituency.
Again, the door is shut in their faces. 

Now, will our B&C representatives please tell
us how New.net is "supposed" to participate?

If you are confident of the truth of your ideas you
don't need to silence or exclude parties who
disagree with you.

Either the B&C decision has to be reversed or the
issue of who is eligible to join the gTLD constituency
has to be reopened. I personally am sick to death of dealing with manipulation of the representative structures of ICANN.