Re: [Membership] The People's Republic of ICANN?

[Daniel Kaplan <dkaplan@terra-nova.fr>]

A 15:56 13/02/99 -0000, Dr Nii Quaynor a écrit :
>>NO. Others can join as well. But I would want ICANN to be especially
>>proactive in getting IP address and domain names holders to join.
>
>Its better IMO for members to take the initiative to join and participate.
>Therefore I am not in support of proactive membership. Its not in our
>interest to encourage passive members through an automatic process. Is this
>another class being created?

I did not say "automatic": I advocate a process whereby upon registration
of a domain name or an IP address, the registrant:
- ticks a box to become a member
- and/or immediately receives an e-mail suggesting hil/her to join.

DN/IP Address holders are not a separate class. Again, they are the
primary, direct users of ICANN's services. They are the ones who directly
depend on ICANN for a large share of their activity. So they should be
especially encouraged to join. No more, no less.

Once again, I believe that the root of all this discussion is a unsolved
debate about what ICANN is. I tend to believe it is not a world government,
nor the Internet government. ICANN is an important institution, which has
powers and therefore needs to be democratically controlled, but with a
limited set of duties and powers. ICANN also provides services to users:
directly to registries and possibly registrars, almost directly to DN/IPA
registrants.
This specific situation makes ICANN different from a government, which acts
in an extremely large variety of fields and has almost the same influence
on everyone.
I do not believe this difference is big enough to limit ICANN membership to
domain names and IP address holders. But I do believe that the
"registrants" should be given priority as far as "outreach programs" are
concerned.

Daniel
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