2014-06-19

How ICANN Really Works (a "must read" if you are going to London 50)

If you are going to ICANN's next meeting in London -- London 50 (June 22-26), and you are "new to ICANN" I hate to burst your bubble but forewarned is forearmed -- this is how ICANN really works (in the words of one who has been to many, many ICANN meetings):

Meltdown III: How top-down ‘implementation’ replaced bottom-up policymaking | IGP Blog: ".... The basic pattern is clear: abandon fair process in response to political pressure; substitute staff-made policies for bottom-up policies; feed ignorant and overwhelmed board members only the information they need to ratify the staff decisions; pre-emptively dismiss any reconsideration or information requests with boilerplate language and bogus rationalizations. All this is possible because, after all, there is no real accountability, no standards to adhere to, no effective appeals mechanisms or oversight." -- Milton Mueller (more at link above)

ICANN's policy-making is like a legislative process of which someone else once said: “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made."

But irrespective of how dysfunctional ICANN is, at least enjoy and have some fun in London -- "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." -- Samuel Johnson





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