[discuss] Will there be life on 1net after IANA is globalized? (:-)

[Milton L Mueller]

From: discuss-bounces at 1net.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at 1net.org] On Behalf Of Naresh Ajwani
>"Motherhood-and-applepie" statements are always liked but here
> specifics that can address concerns would help more: how many new
> constituencies have been added, especially since emerging economies
> started becoming important stakeholders of internet.

Just a point of information for Naresh. Within ICANN's GNSO, the main policy making organ for domain names, the term "constituency" has a very specific meaning in the bylaws. Along with "Stakeholder Groups" they are units of representation within ICANN. ICANN has created a two-level structure in which constituencies are located within Stakeholder Groups, and Stakeholder Groups are represented on the Council.

Currently there are 4 Stakeholder Groups: Registries, Registrars, Noncommercial users and Commercial Users. Those 4 categories are broad and flexible enough to encompass virtually any interest group. My point is that ICANN doesn't really need "new Constituencies" in a structural sense - it needs additional members and participants within its constituencies.

Asking "how many constituencies have been added since emerging economies started becoming important stakeholders of the internet" is the wrong question. Adding a constituency is a structural change in ICANN (which has mostly bad effects, but that is another story): Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that what you really want to know is "how many _people_ or _organizations_ from emerging economies have joined ICANN in, say, the last 5 years?

The answer is that in the Noncommercial Stakeholder Group, very many. You can see a list of the Noncommercial Users Constituency membership here: http://www.ncuc.org/about/members/ And a list of NonProfit Operational Constituency members here: http://npoc.org/?p=members

ICANN's At Large also does a pretty good job of involving people from the developing world.

In the Commercial stakeholders group, very, very few. There are almost no active members from the developing world, and I think over the year it has had perhaps 1 or 2 Council members from developing countries elected, if any. The Commercial SG is dominated almost entirely by US and European business interests, and has been run by essentially the same people almost since the beginning of ICANN.  This problem was reflected most recently when the private sector nominated its 5 members to the 1net steering committee, and ALL 5 of them were from US companies.

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