It's just
a fringe group of Indians.- General George C.
Custer.
|
|
Grey
Ribbon Campaign
calls for
Open ICANN
Board
Meetings
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TIBURON
(January 22, 1999) - A website concentrating on domain
name system (DNS) issues today launched a grey ribbon
campaign, targeting the new non-profit corporation that
will administer Internet names and addresses.
The
protest highlights the decision of the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Addresses
(ICANN)
to sit in closed session when it meets as a board. Those
who support the call to "bring ICANN out of the shadows"
are encouraged to add to their own websites the
grey
ribbon image
posted at WWW.DOMAINHANDBOOK.COM.
In
November 1998, the Department of Commerce issued a
Memorandum
of Understanding
to develop jointly with ICANN mechanisms and procedures
to transition DNS management functions to a
private-sector not-for-profit entity. ICANN received the
nod after a summer-long series of international
meetings were
held to identify public consensus on the structure of
this new corporation.
Ellen
Rony, webmaster of the site leading the protest,
explained that there was common agreement throughout the
International Forum on the White Paper (IFWP)
in the summer of 1998 that openness, fairness, and
transparency were to be the guiding principles of this
self-governing initiative. Her call for public board
meetings echoes complaints by subscribers to discussion
lists that monitor the policies and activities of ICANN.
She turned black a web
page that
tracks ICANN announcements, news reports, committee
notes, and related activities after ICANN posted the
agenda
for its next closed board meeting, set for Singapore on
March 4, 1999.
"What
this means is that the Board members are unwilling to
expose their reasons and process to public view,"
explained David
J. Farber, the
Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication
Systems at the University of Pennsylvania. "If it is the
public's business, then let it be done in public."
Esther
Dyson, ICANN's
chair, says a public meeting is scheduled the day before
the board meets. She answered critics in a message to the
discussion
list, "Yes. It
is in our bylaws and in all the public statements we have
made. Basically, we could have had 'open' board meetings
with executive sessions that were closed, but we figured
that this is the best way to do it."
"That's
unacceptable," says Rony, and she hopes that a
proliferation of grey ribbons on web pages will make that
point to ICANN's board members. "Minutes may not be
published for up to 21 days; the board members can even
decide among themselves not to publish their decisions or
their individual vote. A board meeting that is open to
the public adds the important component missing from this
equation: accountability."
Rony is co-author
of The
Domain Name Handbook: High Stakes and Strategies in
Cyberspace. She
developed the DOMAINHANDBOOK.COM
website to keep individuals apprised of DNS news and
policy changes.
The
following websites support the Grey Ribbon campaign to
open ICANN board meetings to the public:
