Re: [ALSC-Forum] OPEN LETTER TO ICANN AND ALSC

[Joanna Lane]

Dear Mr. Ogura,
This a very disturbing development. I completely agree that the extracts
cited in the ALSC Report give the impression that these are your main
contentions. I do not know whether or not you are attending the ALSC meeting
hosted later today by the DNSO GA at MdR, but I am forwarding a copy of your
letter to Danny Younger, the Chair of that meeting, in case an opportunity
arises for this to be brought up with them directly.

Regards,
Joanna

on 11/12/01 4:45 AM, toshimaru ogura at ogr@nsknet.or.jp wrote:

> 
> 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.