Re: [ga] the IDNO bootstrapping process

[Dave Crocker <dcrocker@brandenburg.com>]

At 02:10 PM 7/27/99 , Joop Teernstra wrote:
>(For your information) This open letter was sent to the ICANN Board members
>yesterday.

And was posted to a number of other mailing lists, today.  The following 
are my own comments about IDNO.  The posting of these comments has 
engendered int3eresting follow-on postings by others, including at least 
one IDNO official.

>At 12:56 AM 7/27/99 , Joop Teernstra wrote:
>the Association. Protection of the early organization against those who are
>determined to make it fail its mission is an unenviable part of a 
>bootstrapping process


>And in this one statement, we are told the core of the problem with IDNO, 
>both its history and its present. The mailing list's archives will nicely 
>document an aggressive effort to suppress contributions that do not fall 
>within a very narrow band of acceptability. This is not a matter of 
>rejecting uncivil discourse, but of rejecting alternative views.
>
>That is not a one-person problem, fixed by having that one person step 
>away from holding future office. The problem persists through new 
>office-holders and highly biased treatment of applicants.
>
>The group has shown a strong and persistent desire to express highly 
>negative sentiments about other groups, notably the ICANN board and ISOC, 
>initially to the detriment of efforts at organizing the IDNO itself. 
>Response to efforts at focusing the group on its goal of self-organizing 
>were met with very forceful hounding, making quite explicit that the group 
>is NOT really open to all.
>
>Hence any "freedom" within the voting process of the group has been 
>rendered meaningless by the groups highly selective basis for acquiring 
>participants. The sample of participants from the individual domain name 
>holders' community is highly skewed.


>In spite of this, no qualified candidate who, in declaring support for our 
>mission statement, applied for acceptance into the IDNO has ever been


>Oh yes. Declaration of support.
>
>To become a member of the IDNO, you must take a loyalty oath. Anyone 
>attempting to participate who has not taken the oath is treated as highly 
>suspect.


>Our main duty and challenge will be to represent the collective interests
>and views of these persons. They are the essence of our reason for existence.
>
>I would like to point out that our independent and critical position makes 
>us a necessary component of the mix of opinion on the Names Council and it


>The first sentence sounds constructive. The second sentence makes clear 
>the real focus of the group, namely criticism.
>
>Look for IDNO's efforts at learning the details of ICANN-related needs by 
>individual domain name holders. That's their claimed constituency, yet you 
>will find precious little serious effort to understand the nature and 
>needs of that constituency.
>
>d/


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Dave Crocker                                         Tel: +1 408 246 8253
Brandenburg Consulting                               Fax: +1 408 273 6464
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