[Chapter-delegates] Seeking comments: ICANN Improving Institutional Confidence, round 2

[Bill Graham]

Dear all,

ICANN's President's Strategy Committee has revised its paper on  
improving institutional confidence and announced a second round of  
comments that will close on October 20, 2008.  Once again we are now  
considering whether ISOC should file a formal response to it.

We would like to hear from you.  We want to get your views on whether  
ISOC should itself comment on the new version of the PSC paper.  Also,  
if you do think ISOC should submit comments, please indicate briefly  
and specifically what position you think ISOC should take and your  
reasoning for those recommendations.   In addition, given ISOC's  
purpose and responsibility to the Internet as a whole, we are also  
asking others, such as the ISOC Board, ISOC Organization members,  
other Internet community stakeholders (including ICANN itself) for  
their input, to ensure a well rounded thoughtful consultation lies  
behind any ultimate submission.

 >> Deadline for me to receive your comments is Thursday, October 16,  
end of day <<

Please see the front page of the ICANN web site for information on the  
PSC and all documentation, at <http://www.icann.org/>.  The document  
is similar to the one posted in June, and as you will recall ISOC  
provided comments at that time, after seeking comments internally.   
That contribution is attached to this message for your reference.   
Also attached are versions of the two new documents (the "Transition  
Action Plan" and "Improving Institutional Confidence in ICANN") in  
"track changes" mode for those of you able to make use of MS Word  
documents.  ICANN did not show the changes in their postings, which  
can be found at: <http://www.icann.org/en/jpa/iic/>.  [I want to thank  
Bertrand de la Chapelle for sharing the documents showing the changes,  
and thus saving us all the work of reading side-by-side].

The main changes in the new version that stand out for me are:

- There are more detailed comments (notably in the IIC document)  
regarding ICANN's presence in other jurisdictions (including in  
particular the existence of jurisdictions that could provide  
international not-for -profit status), although I find the reasoning  
still quite vague.

- the text confirming ICANN's presence in the US has softened ("decide  
whether or not to amend ICANN's bylaws to confirm that its  
headquarters will remain in the US" instead of "explore adjusting the  
bylaws to confirm ICANN's historic headquarters in the US")

- inclusion of references to the comments made by NTIA during the  
first round comments

- a clear statement the "Governmental Advisory Committee should  
maintain its advisory status"

It is worth noting that the new posting changes slightly the time line  
for concluding PSC recommendations, and a clear indication of the  
opportunities for future rounds of comment.  In addition, the paper's  
comment on the creation of an expert group to advise the PSC, as  
recommended in the previous version, seems to have moved away from  
that step (which ISOC had supported), stating instead that: "The PSC  
should continue to explore the value to be gained from the formation  
of an Expert Group to assist with consultations on the Analysis and  
Design Project".

I would also like to note that the documents are provided by ICANN as  
part of an internal process.  While this is related to the ultimate  
ICANN position on its Joint Project Agreement with the US government,  
the comments go to ICANN and not to the US government.  I think we  
have to be very careful in our remarks to treat ICANN as ICANN and USG  
as USG.  We will get a chance to comment in a government process as  
they develop their thinking about the future of the JPA, and should  
reserve comments directed to the US government until that process is  
launched.

I look forward to hearing your views.

Regards

Bill
========================
Bill Graham
Global Strategic Engagement
The Internet Society
graham at isoc.org
tel +1.613.231.8543 or
  +1.703.439.2157
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