[discuss] Two accountability questions - help pls- Workshop 23 - ICANN accountability

Sun Aug 31 16:09:14 UTC 2014

On Aug 31, 2014, at 6:00 PM, Jordan Carter <jordan at internetnz.net.nz> wrote:

> Dear all
> 
> Apologies for cross-posting...
> 
> I am seeking some community feedback as part of prepping for the
> workshop on ICANN accountability scheduled for Wednesday 9am here at
> #igf2014.
> 
> The particular questions I have, two, are:
> 
> 1. Is ICANN's accountability a subject for the whole Internet
> community to resolve, or (as suggested by ICANN, in distinction from
> the iana stewardship transition) an internal ICANN community matter?

Jordan -

Could you explain a little more about what you mean by "ICANN accountability"?  
In particularly, for what function or task to be performed by ICANN are you 
asking about accountability? 

If the you mean "ICANN's accountability as a overall coordinator of names 
and numbers" that may result in different answer than "ICANN's accountability 
as the DNS registry policy development body"...  (and definitely different
answers than "ICANN's accountability in performance of the IANA functions")

> 2. Can *internal* accountability arrangements, of whatever sort, ever
> be adequate for an entity like ICANN that is intended (at least it
> looks like that is ICANN's intention) to be responsible for the
> stewardship of the iana functions?

By "internal", are you asking wether such could be adequate based on ICANN's 
current specific governance structures, or asking more generically the question 
of "can any organization be accountable to an external community for performance 
of a task", and have the accountability anchored solely via internal mechanisms?"

Thanks!
/John

Disclaimer: my views alone.