Since the link to the archive of comments on the "Proposed Resolution Concerning Term of Initial At Large Directors" at <http://www.icann.org/comments-mail/comment-initial-director-term/maillist.html> does not currently work, I am re-posting the comment I submitted to ICANN on this list, as well: ___________________________________________________________ What is the justification for extending the terms of this interim, unelected and unaccountable board? The participation of the majority of the board members on public comment lists is abyssmal to non-existent. Without intervention of the Department of Commerce, this board would continue to hold its meetings in private. Of greater concern, this board is developing policy directives that will affect millions of Internet users before it has even completed building its own foundation. Neither the at-large membership nor the DNSO constituencies, are complete. To date, only commercial and infrastructure representation has been annointed by the ICANN board, but the issues are being moved forward on a fast track. Its bylaws keep changing, and in one case, new rules have been applied retroactively. And this board's idea of a bottom-up self-organizing process is to tell the DNS community who may have a voice in the policy recommendations. IMHO, this unelected and unaccountable board should not make a single decision that is unrelated to the development of the structure of the organization. It should focus *solely* on setting up its foundation and the mechanisms that will allow us to vote in replacement members of the board. Many of us do not trust this board. And given the broad and vocal complaints about how the board members came to hold their positions, about ICANN's unsupportable claims of community consensus, its failure to hold open meetings, its blatant conflicts of interest, and its general hubris in promulgating policy that touches individual domain name registrants (not just registries and registrars), I believe continuing the terms of the interim directors will not be in the best interest of this privatization process and simply prolong the DNS community's collective pain. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Ellen Rony The Domain Name Handbook Co-author ____ http://www.domainhandbook.com ========================== ^..^ )6 ============================= ISBN 0879305150 (oo) -^-- +1 (415) 435-5010 [EMAIL PROTECTED] W W Tiburon, CA DOT COM is the Pig Latin of the Information Age ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^