On 19 July 1999, Ellen Rony <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[...]
>
>ICANN is tasked to administer names and addresses. Its stakeholders are
>those who have names and addresses or provide infrastructure and services
>related to same. In order to have an IP address or register a domain name,
>one must have access to computer hardware and connectivity. Those who can
>afford such access most likely can afford a nominal membership fee. Those
>who cannot, probably likewise do not care about these complex, convoluted
>technical issues.
>
>Membership dues, however minimal, provide a form of accountability for
>voting purposes. That's a reasonable quid pro quo for participating in the
>vote.
>
>I understand that one problem with collecting a membership fee is that it
>will cost more to administer this than will be collected if the fee is low.
>OTOH, no membership fee means higher costs of authentication for voting.
>By collecting a membership fee, some authentication is built into the
>processing of the registration.
>
>I suggest that MAC reconvene, go back to the virtual drawing boards, focus
>on who are the stakeholders of this corporation, not on some great
>humanitarian outreach for all mankind, and develop a proposal that ties
>voter authentication through membership fees, even if they are nominal or
>on a sliding scale. Otherwise, the current membership recommendations are
>as pie-in-the-sky as ICANN's $5.9 million budget.
I would almost be willing to go along with this, except for one VERY large
and quite real fear: That the "nominal membership fee" would be set at
a level that would preclude the participation of non-organizational,
non-commerical, individual domain name owners.
What level would be fair? I don't know. But as domains currently
cost an individual $35 a year, one would hope the cost would be lower
than this.
Any amount over $100 would be outrageous. It would also effectively
eliminate any form of self-representation for those individuals.
While there are those that would desire that outcome, there are
others who would very loudly protest any such attempt as an effort
to exclude the individual in favor of commercial interests.
Unfortunately, I can't think of any method to implement a slding
scale that would work.
--
Mark C. Langston Let your voice be heard:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.idno.org
Systems Admin http://www.icann.org
San Jose, CA http://www.dnso.org
