[ALSC-Forum] OPEN LETTER TO ICANN AND ALSC

[toshimaru ogura]

OPEN LETTER TO ICANN AND ALSC 

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers 
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330 
Marina del Rey CA 90292-6601 

Dear At Large Study Committee and ICANN board members, 

Your organization recently issued a Final Report on ICANN At-Large 
Membership. When I read the report, I was very astonished to find that
it 
quoted me in a way that completely ignored my actual opinions. Instead,
the 
document used my comments to justify various voting restrictions. I am 
writing to tell you that I find this to be really unfair. 

The portion of the report that particularly concerns me reads as
follows: 

"The ALSC is concerned by some evidence that the very low entrance
barrier 
in last year's At-Large election may have resulted in a large enrollment
of 
people who were not actively interested in ICANN, but who enrolled only 
because it was easy, or who were 'encouraged' to do so simply because of 
nationalistic competition. 

"For example, Toshimaru Ogura, author of 'Japanese Experience about
ICANN 
Election Campaign,' states, 'It was clear they disregarded the intent of 
ICANN's election, and that JIF [Japan Internet Forum] was set-up at the 
direction of MPT [Ministry of Postal and Telecommunications] to get a
Japan 
(not Asia) Board Member. Private sector was involved in the JIF at the 
direction of the MPT. The private sector and the government are not
separate 
in Japan; only excluding government is not enough. Several ISP's in
Japan 
developed a campaign for ICANN elections. A special web page was created
to 
promote Japanese votes. Several companies directed their employees to 
register. For example, according to an internal document from Hitachi
Corp., 
it was assigned to produce 1500 registrations, and management assigned
three 
registrations for each office and section, and required a registration 
report to meet quota.' 

"Domain name ownership, cost and verification, and membership fees may
help 
deter problems such as nationalistic competition and involvement of 
disinterested individuals, as well as the establishment of election
rules 
and consequences for breaking the rules." 

In fact, I am against further voting restrictions. But because of the
way my 
comments were cited, your report may deceive people who do not know my 
background regarding ICANN At Large issues. 

More specifically, in my view, ICANN should not place any further 
restrictions on its terms of membership, even if, during the last
election, 
the Japanese government mobilized people who had little interest in the 
ICANN process. Rather, I propose that ICANN should resolve the issues
posed 
by such top down election campaigning and do a better job educating
Internet 
users. Also I strongly insist that global democracy is necessary for 
Internet governance and that all users should have the right to
participate 
in this decision making process. 

Unfortunately, ICANN and the ALSC have ignored these ideas and used only
the 
portion of my comments that are in their favor. 

So I would like you to answer the following questions. 

1. Why did you cite my arguments without mentioning my main contentions? 

2. What do you think about my assertion that more participatory
processes 
(based on global democracy ideals) are necessary for the ICANN At Large 
membership structure? I am sending my formal suggestions to you once
more 
(as an appendix to this letter). If you want to quote me, you should at 
least critique my ideas and explain why your more restrictive proposal
is 
legitimate. 

3. I fear that the people who read the portion of the ALSC report that 
quotes me may misinterpret my views. Therefore I fear other civil
society 
groups may lose confidence in me. What do you think about this? 

Best regards, 

Toshimaru Ogura 
NaST (NCDNHC member organization) 
JCA-Net Board member (Japan) 
ogr@nsknet.or.jp 

========================= 
APPENDIX 
Excerpt from Report for At Large Study Committee Outreach Meeting 
Originally submitted June 5, 2001 
http://marux.org/~ogura/ogura_report20010605.html 

3 How to avoid top-down/nationalistic election campaign? 
3-1 Enough information 
I think that given the enough information, most of the above issues will
be 
disappeared. Therefore ICANN should give enough information for
non-English 
speaking people. "Enough information" should include not only official
ICANN 
announces and documents but also various opinions and discussion from
all 
over the world. It seems very difficult to realize in short time. But
ICANN 
should make effort for this as possible as they can. ICANN should not be
a 
quitter. 

3-2 Education 
ICANN issues are not belong to technical specialists even if it contains 
"technical management" because another important mission of ICANN is
"policy 
development" based on democracy and transparent procedure by various 
Internet communities including civil society groups. The policy making
of 
ICANN should be possible by ordinary users who has not so much
professional 
technical knowledge but should have a proper knowledge about what the 
democratic policy making of the Internet governance is and what the
rights 
of users are. ICANN should educate the users from above point of view on 
whom democracy of the Internet governance is be based. 

3-3 Important role of civil society 
3-3-1 Civil society NGOs 
I feel responsibility as an activist of NGOs in Japan for above top-down 
election issues in Japan because we could not take an action as enough
as we 
could because of lack of our experiences about ICANN issues. I think we
have 
to do a lot of things for promoting more democratic procedure in not
only 
global but also local level. 
Activities of NGOs do not belong to ICANN directly, but they may be
included 
into a kind of user communities. Internet users of civil society
oriented 
NGOs can have a very important position for promoting above missions
from 
outside of ICANN organization. 


3-3-2 Outreach to individual users beyond professional NGOs 
Population of the Internet users increases rapidly. The Internet does
not 
belong to specialists of computer technology and communication any more. 
Though the role of NGOs is still very important, NGOs cannot catch up
with 
rapid growth of the Internet. The scheme that NGOs as civil society 
representatives lobby to International organizations will become not so 
effective as before. On the other hand, individual users will become to
have 
a responsibility for the Internet governance directly. ICANN At Large 
election in 2000 was very useful and important experiences for more
direct 
participation based on individual users. 

Therefore At Large election should be direct participation by individual 
users. Internet users will not need any assistance for policy making of
the 
Internet in near future. The idea that any intermediate organization 
represents At Large members and At Large board members should be elected
by 
the intermediate organization must be recognized completely as unclear, 
opaque and exclusive procedure for users. Each NGO as activists
collective 
or specialists for technology and politics will become the civil society 
organization which has limited missions and interests. They may become
not a 
legitimate representative for At Large members but just a navigator with 
various directions within the civil society. 


3-4 Democratic procedure for the Internet governance in local
organizations 
Top-down campaign might end in failure if local Internet governance 
organization had a democratic body and civil society groups had more 
concerning the Internet governance issues in local level. ICANN issues
are 
also applicable to local governance organization such as JPNIC. If so,
we 
should approach democratization both of ICANN itself and local
organization. 


4 Conclusion 
I know that there is an opinion that the At Large election should be 
restricted more in oder to avoid top-down/nationalistic election. I
think 
this opinion does not stem from civil society groups, rather this is a
kind 
of conspiracy pretending democracy. The necessary measures exist in the 
contrary direction. I believe we can promote more bottom-up and more
civil 
society oriented At Large election process if ICANN has proper measures
and 
were so minded. 
Individual users in the Internet including Japanese people are not 
absolutely stupid, rather the information system of ICANN makes
individual 
users ignoramus. Therefore people should not accept the responsibility
but 
the one who insists on more restricted election without any effort or
the 
one who completely disregards the interest of global Internet community
and 
intend to introduce national or business interest should take
responsibility 
for top-down/nationalistic election process.