Internet Service Provider (ISP) Membership

["John D. Goodspeed" <John@Annapolis.Net>]

Internet Service Providers (ISP) should themselves be the representatives to
ICANN.

I think that the Internet Service Provider (ISP) may be best suited to
represent the needs of its community (local, regional or national)
constituents and end users. Currently their are several thousand independent
ISP's operating worldwide. They already offer diversity of representation,
some cater to web sites, some to access, some offer very low cost basic
service, others offer very fast service at a price premium. The simply fact
is that ISP's are the Internet user's primary contact, period. The premise
that a typical Internet end user would take the time to communicate with an
elected representative in a meaningful way is not well founded.

Actual ISP business practices and customer bases are so diverse that the
Internet community would be better served by having every ISP directly
represent their views and those of their constituent users.

ISP's operate in a world of extreme competition and low profit margins and
thus can be counted upon to make reasonable representation on issues that
involve price versus performance. Virtually all Internet decisions will boil
down to cost to implement versus performance gained and I feel that ISP's
are in the best position to understand these economic issues.

The ISP may be in a better position to understand Internet issues and to
represent end users than would be an arm chair academic or purely political
representative.

I would say that all ISP organizations whether they be private, public or
government entities should automatically become dues paying ICANN members.

Of course, academic and political jurisdictions should be represented as
well, however I stress that it would be improper for them to make decisions
without the consideration of the entire ISP community who are, after all,
the world's frontline, first contact with the Internet.

It would be unreasonable for the ICANN to make decisions without input from
the entire ISP community because without the ISP's "real world input"
decisions could be made that would be very expensive or simply impossible to
implement.

Thank you for your thoughts,

John Goodspeed