Week 1 Report:

This is the first weekly/biweekly report from the Steering Committee to the full membership.

The goal is to find an easy way to keep all members in the know, and thereby permit

everyone to contribute to any CA activity. Number 1 is a bit long because we want to

present background info for our newer members.

Overview of Week 1

Cacophony and Chaos. The first elected steering committee had six big sets of

activity: 1) Divide up roles and responsibilities, 2) Participate in the Names Council, 3) Respond to ICANN-Watch, 4) Create a messaging system , 5) Representation in Meetings/Hearings, and 6) Pending Items (No Action This Week).

Here's what we did:

1. Roles and Responsibilities:

List Server Issues (Joe Abley). Activities underway include reassessment of the current

server's maturity. Discussion topic: do we need a supplementary US server site?

Chair (Dan Sternberg)

Treasurer/Chair ( )

Regular Report to Full Membership (Dennis Schaefer).

Membership Drive (Andy Gardner, Joan Faber).

2. Participate in the Names Council

As a non-recognized constituency, IDNO currently has no elected representatives to the

NC. IDNO is seeking observer status while its petition for recognition is pending, similar to

the status given to the Non Commercial constituency. The SC is currently considering draft # 3 of a formal petition for resubmission prior to the Santiago meeting in August. It is expected by

the first week of August. Contact Joop Teernstra or Karl Auerbach for details.

The petition is accompanied by an effort to place the issue of recognition on the Santiago agenda. See the ga@dnso.org for the current status of the agenda.

In the interim, IDNO has been active in urging the NC to open its meetings fully to the public and to adopt orderly rules to ensure a democratic meeting process.

The Names Council held a teleconference on 7/27/99. (See the Berkman Site (www.berkmancenter.org) to hear the audio. One SC issue arose: charters for Working Groups (see below). A second issue not on the NC agenda arose this week, NSI's Policy on Credit Cards. (Had IDNO been represented on the NC, the item would have been added to the agenda.)

Working Groups

[Background: At the Berlin Meeting of the ICANN Board in May 1999, the WIPO draft was referred to the full DNSO with an endorsement of the contents, the propriety of which is hotly disputed; the issue is hovering around the recent hearings by the House Commerce Committee (Subcommittee on Oversight), and the House Judiciary Committee

New members should be aware that the Memo of Understanding (MOU) by which the Department of Commerce defines ICANN's role, envisions that ICANN will engage only in coordination of Internet matters, without immersing itself in technical regulation of the Internet. The WIPO draft is technical regulation, so the Board's action here is undergoing never-ending

scrutiny. Lawsuit potential: A++++.)

Undaunted, the NC of DNSO divided up the WIPO report into smaller pieces, each assigned to working groups (A-E). For a full description of each working group's mission and members, see the DNSO site at www.dnso.org. Thus far, membership in WG's has technically been open to everyone -- but some groups have apparently been stacked.

Controversy has undermined the working groups at every step. Calls for volunteers were posted with little notice and unreasonable deadlines. In addition, many volunteers (predominantly people not from recognized DNSO Constituencies) were turned away. Next, the working groups were criticized for lacking formal procedures, leading to the 7/27 NC meeting's discussion of WG charters and rules. Some groups appear to be trying to correct these problems.]

At the 7/27 meeting, WG-C decided to divide its membership into two groups, but the exact

nature of the proposed division was unclear: a) Members of Recognized Constituencies versus All Other People or b) Substantive Statements versus Background Noise.

The first group will be allowed full participation. The second group will be allowed to post messages, but are not ensured having a voice in matters. Since the MOU requires ICANN

to avoid 'disparate treatment' of groups, the NC is venturing into questionable territory here.

The SC is preparing a response. Exclusion of non-recognized constituencies undermines the stated purpose of the General Assembly, and suggests that the ICANN Board should either curb its powers to refuse to recognize Constituencies (such as IDNO), or else face a finding of non-compliance with the MOU's requirement for consensus-driven decision making.

The issue will reach the ICANN Board at a meaningful time. The House Oversight Committee last week postponed for later consideration what appeared to be a strong sentiment -- asking ICANN to declare a moratorium on all substantive actions. That issue will resurface in hearings this fall, calling all interim decisions into the spotlight.

NSI's Credit Card Policy

NSI has adopted a policy of accepting credit cards as the only form of payment for domain name registrations.

While this policy is onerous for many people right in the USA, it is an unbreachable barrier for

much of the world -- particularly third world countries. The policy threatens to turn registration into a neo-colonial land rush.

The SC is drafting a policy statement protesting the restriction.

3. Respond to ICANN Watch

ICANN Watch (www.icannwatch.org) is led by Prof. Michael Froomkin and David Post. The site contains valuable background information on ICANN and serious discussion of the legal issues surrounding ICANN. IDNO members will find this site very valuable.

The ICANN Watch perspective is fundamentally different from the CA-IDNO perspective. ICANN Watch feels that ICANN needs a legitimacy watchdog whose role is to provide a respected legal perspective on ICANN's actions, identifying those which may be questionable. It confines itself, by and large, to assessing specific actions (and controversial ones), while avoiding broader characterizations or statements of preference.

CA-IDNO is different: we believe that ICANN's constituency structure is a representative democracy in which any constituency meeting the minimal DNSO requirements is entitled to recognition. In consequence, at every occasion in which the lack of recognition deprives IDNO

of a voice in the NC or the ICANN Board, we call that to their attention.

Froomkin and Post are active posters to the IDNO and GA lists, so they frequently offer direct, valuable input to matters under discussion. Formulating an official response to their proposals and comments will probably continue to be a regular activity on the SC agenda.

During this reporting period, Prof. Froomkin floated a proposal in response to ICANN's being attacked before the House Oversight Committee as 'consensus-phobic.' Froomkin's suggestion was that ICANN agree to a third party resolution system in which people challenging the propriety of ICANN's actions would acquire facilitated access to class action suits or other legal redress. The issue is disputed within the Steering Committee, but is still under debate.

In addition, Froomkin proposed that challengers (largely IDNO), endorse mandatory administrative dispute resolution procedure in return for the legal protections. This proposal was

largely rejected by IDNO members and Steering Committee members, but a formal decision has

not been reached.

4. Create a Messaging System

Everyone is experience serious email overload. Sri Narra proposed a creative messaging system for trial by the CA Steering Committee list.

It involves using controlled subject headings to permit threads and sub-threads to differentiate themselves.

SC discussing and adoption is pending.

Members no doubt have noticed the flaming and troll-wars that often dominate the mail. Please keep in mind that there are posters who do not like IDNO: their agenda is to distract us from our agenda. Don't let them do it!

5. Representation at Hearings/Meetings

Two congressional hearings took place last week:

House Oversight Sub-Committee (Commerce)

Mikki Barry of the Steering Committee was a member of Panel 2 during last week's hearings. We're biassed, of course, but she was the single best panelist of the day.

Thanks, Mikki!

Summary notes on the outcome of the hearings were posted on our list. See also the Berkman Center webcast archive.

House IP and Courts Sub-Committee (Judiciary)

Hearings took place on July 28 in which several members of the IP Constituency and

Working Groups were present.

IDNO was not represented.

See the Berkman Center archive for advance transcripts of speakers' presentations.

6. Pending Items: No Action This Week:

Logo adoption. The SC seeks an owner.

Calendar of events. The SC seeks an owner.

Name. The SC seeks an owner (Membership officers, perhaps)?

Domain Names. We need to confirm the domain names that qualify all members for IDNO membership.

Final Note:

Finding a way to keep the membership up to date on events in-progress is going to be

a challenge. Between Sri's messaging and this regular report, let's hope we've taken a

step forward. Please .... stay tuned, and let me know when I fail to be clear or accurate. All suggestions are welcome.

SCWK1.WRI