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

[Jordan Carter]

Hi all,

> On 31/08/2014, at 7:09 pm, John Curran <jcurran at istaff.org> wrote:
>
>> 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?

I can't, in the sense that the session here at IGF uses that phrase.
Your teasing out of the below is very useful, so thanks for that.

> 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?"
>

The more general question, as phrased, is very elegant. Interested in your view!

thanks,
Jordan

> Thanks!
> /John
>
> Disclaimer: my views alone.
>
>