IP: . Call for comments -- Wired: Congress to Enter ICANN Fray

[David Farber <dfarber () earthlink net>]

Please cc me o any comments to Lyman. Tnks. Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: Lyman Chapin <lyman () nexthop com>
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 18:05:22 
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: Re: IP: Wired: Congress to Enter ICANN Fray

> I will be writing an IP Editorial (rare events) this weekend giving my views
> on the current situation with ICANN. As a early participant in the planning
> for an organization , as an advisor to Jon Postel, I will try to put some
> context to the current mess and suggest some rational ways out.

Dave,

I have a particular interest in your views on ICANN, as I'm one of 
the five members of the "restructuring" committee - and I would also 
be interested to hear from any other IPers who feel strongly about 
"what should be done about ICANN." So far the most concisely 
clear-headed commentary I've seen has come from Harald Alvestrand, 
the current IETF chair ( 
http://www.alvestrand.no/icann/icann_reform.html). There is of course 
no shortage of less carefully reasoned comments!

With respect to Rick Forno's conspiracy theory - needless to say, 
ICANN's meeting in Ghana (the home of one of the directors recently 
elected At-Large) was scheduled long before there was a 
"controversial Lynn Plan."

- Lyman

> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
> Organization: www.infowarrior.org
> Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 09:37:39 -0500
> To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: Wired: Congress to Enter ICANN Fray
>
>
> (Wired article exerpt follows)
>
> All I can say, is it's about time we got some fresh air and sunlight into
> the secretive bedchambers of the runaway frieght train known as ICANN.
> Congress needs to take a good, hard, and objective look at ICANN's past
> actions, policies, and questionable practices, lest it become a miniature
> Enron-in-the-making.
>
> I was talking to a few folks last week....does anyone else  wonder why they
> picked Ghana - a very, very remote place on Earth - to have their Board
> Meeting.....to discuss the controversial Lynn Plan? Could it be ICANN didn't
> want much "interested media" coverage or public attendance at this
> monumental meeting?  (The feeds from the meeting go up and down like a yo
> yo, by the way, further muddying the waters.) Conspiracy theories
> abound.....
>
> ICANN, in its current (or proposed) form  - except for a small number of
> folks on their Board - appears to be a corrupt, unqualified, one-sided
> "Bannana Republic" model of governance that is stereotypically equated to
> small, tropical dictatorships in the Caribbean.
>
> rick
> infowarrior.org

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