[ALSC-Forum] Calhoun's "Concurrent Majority" [1] -- Should an ICANN Constituency Be Able to Veto ICANN Policy?

[Alphageek]

At Esther Dyson's suggestion, I am forwarding the folowing remarks and some
others to the At Large Forum.  For some reason I cannot find my intial
question, so it is reprinted below following Esther's response.

Others thoughts certainly are welcome and encouraged.

ECG

]> -----Original Message-----
]> From: owner-gcln@vic20.blipp.com [mailto:owner-gcln@vic20.blipp.com]On
]> Behalf Of Esther Dyson
]> Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2001 5:05 AM
]> To: gcln@gcln.net
]> Subject: RE: GCLN: US control of the Internet?
]>
]>
]> It would depend who the At-Large Members are and how they get their
]> information (surely it should not all come from ICANN itself!).....
]>
]> That is one of the big issues,,,, since (for a long time) the At-Large
]> Members will be only a fraction of the total number of users of the
]> Internet.  Note that most of them are not in the US and many of
]> them do not
]> come from "democratic" countries, whatever that means.  Who will
]> be  telling them (how) to vote? Who will be encouraging them to
]> register as
]> At-Large Members in the first place?  Will it be AOL with a big
]> membership
]> push? The Chinese government? The Polish PTT? Lee Kuan Yew?  An American
]> anti-porn crusade? ("let's clean up the Net once and for all!")
]>
]> These are some of the questions we are thinking about.
]>
]> PS - if you really want to engage on this issue, please write to
]> <forum@atlargestudy.org>.
]>
]>
]> Esther
]>
]>
]> At 06:05 PM 7/14/2001, Eric C. Grimm wrote:
]>
]> >What would happen if the ICANN At-Large Representatives could
]> (say, with a
]> >2/3 vote of the At-Large reps) exercise a veto over any proposed ICANN
]> >action, or a repeal of any existing ICANN policy?
]> >
]> >Would the requirement of getting at least 1/3 of the At-Large members on
]> >board for all decisions (including such controversial systems as the
]> >monkeys-in-charge-of-the-bananas WIPO/ICANN UDRP process) have any
]> >substantial impact on both the substantive decisionmaking of
]> ICANN and the
]> >perceived legitimacy of ICANN's output?
]> >
]> >ECG