IDNO letter

[edyson@edventure.com (Esther Dyson)]

Dear Joop and colleagues -

I'm writing to respond personally to your proposal for an Individual Domain
Name Holders' Constituency.  As you know, the Initial Board decided not to
consider it in Berlin because it was not among the seven constituencies we
hoped to see form to constitute the full DNSO.  At this point, we are still
hoping to approve conditionally the last of the seven original
constituencies, and allow the process of enlarging the board to move forward.  

That means that the Initial Board won't be considering your petition this
time either, since we're still working on the first seven.

Let me say personally that I  am not totally comfortable  with this
decision.  Given that the At-Large Membership is not yet constituted, I
think it important that individuals' concerns have some representation
within the DNSO.  

However, there are two other points worth noting. 

First is that the representativeness of the IDNO is still questionable; it
faces many of the same challenges of outreach and breadth that the ICANN
Initial Board faces in trying constitute its At-Large membership.  Creating
the IDNO now may be a way of avoiding rather than solving this problem.  

Second, I am more concerned that the voices and interests of individuals be
*represented* in the work of the DNSO, than with precisely how that happens.
Although the process is certainly messy, the concerns of individuals and
individuals' rights are now being heard within the DNSO working groups -
although perhaps not as effectively as they should be.  Making sure that
that process works is where I think we should be focusing our attention
right now. 

Esther Dyson
personally, as a *member* of the Initial Board but not for it






Esther Dyson			Always make new mistakes!
chairman, EDventure Holdings
interim chairman, Internet Corp. for Assigned Names & Numbers
edyson@edventure.com
1 (212) 924-8800
1 (212) 924-0240 fax
104 Fifth Avenue (between 15th and 16th Streets; 20th floor)
New York, NY 10011 USA
http://www.edventure.com                    http://www.icann.org

High-Tech Forum in Europe:  24 to 26 October 1999, Budapest
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