---------- Start Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 22:32:17 -0500 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Membership] MAC reports and models-New URLs Esther Dyson makes a living based on her association with some of these organizations. She sells newsletters and books that often describing the activities of these organizations and I expect the majority of the subscribers to her newsletter (about $800 per year?) are these organizations. I have read several things she has written in these publications and the information is often incorrect or misleading and many times the stories are simply meant to praise these organizations and give them publicity. Furthermore, Esther has little or no technical knowledge of computers or the DNS system. She is good at public relations, putting a 'spin' on issues, and getting lazy reporters to take her picture in the Lotus position. There is also a quote from her at http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,373885,00.html that states "In some sense, yes, all you can do is either trust us or walk away." She was also instrumental in setting up this TRUSTe system which has turned into a disaster as far as the protection of the privacy of Internet users (I understand, according to a posting by Declan M. of Wired, that Mr. Roberts was also involved in setting up TRUSTe even though it is not mentioned in his bio) I have no confidence in anything Esther Dyson does or says and I do not believe ICANN will have any legitimacy as a technical organization until she is gone. Unfortunately, she is involved in much of decision making now which could cause many more problems after she leaves. The only possible value she could add to the ICANN board is if they started charging her a fee every time she uses an ICANN meeting to promote her book. I suspect this could be enough money to fund ICANN for years to come. Russ Smith http://consumer.net -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 05, 1999 9:30 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Membership] MAC reports and models-New URLs Russ: You are correct on who makes the decisions. I asked that they look at a structure similar to the world wide technical and professional societies. These groups all have tecnically competent sub- committes to deal with issues. Esther told me that they were subsequently going to talk to these organizations - I have no idea what she decided to do thanks steve witkin ---------- Stop Forwarded message ----------