Thank you KK, These constituencies mostly serve to divide, balkanize and fragment Non-Commercial Users rights advancement at ICANN. I do not believe the "reward" of being leader(s) in tiny rights zones, often in perceptual overlapping and/or conflicting, is worth any more than one's commitment to a truly global public interest - for the rights of others not for own-self. regards, Alex 2011/6/30 Konstantinos Komaitis <[log in to unmask]> > I would feel quite reluctant at this stage to have a new academic > constituency as I truly fail to see its clear mandate and premise. NCUC > already consists of many academics, who are in the position to contribute to > policy. Why do we need a new constituency for this? What will be the added > value of an academic constituency within the ICANN model? How will an > academic constituency advance the role of non-commercial users within ICANN? > How will it manage to advance policy within ICANN? These for me are crucial > questions and so far that answers that I seem to come up with are not > sufficient enough to warrant the creation of a separate constituency. I am > an academic, but the truth is that within ICANN I rarely get to use my > academic hat since I know that theory-based rationalizations are rarely met > with support within an institutional arrangement that is not very friendly > to theory-based assertions. So, here comes NCUC that is able to fill this > void. Its strength is the fact that its members are so very diverse and come > from different disciplines and backgrounds. This has allowed NCUC to grow > and become the only constituency that is organically evolving through its > debates by academics, techies, sociologists, political scientists, policy > makers, advocates and many others. By starting creating many constituencies > without standing still for a while and see the value (and the impact) these > might have upon non-commercial interests, we might endanger the true > representation of users and registrants and their rights. Whoever wants to > help advance all these interests will not achieve this through the creation > of many constituencies, but through participation in ICANN working groups or > through the submission of comments during the public period. > > KK > > Dr. Konstantinos Komaitis, > > Senior Lecturer, > Director of Postgraduate Instructional Courses > Director of LLM Information Technology and Telecommunications Law > University of Strathclyde, > The Law School, > Graham Hills building, > 50 George Street, Glasgow G1 1BA > UK > tel: +44 (0)141 548 4306 > > http://www.routledgemedia.com/books/The-Current-State-of-Domain-Name-Regulation-isbn9780415477765 > Selected publications: > http://hq.ssrn.com/submissions/MyPapers.cfm?partid=501038 > Website: www.komaitis.org > > -----Original Message----- > From: NCSG-NCUC [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of > Andrew A. Adams > Sent: Πέμπτη, 30 Ιουνίου 2011 8:29 πμ > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: The Purpose of Constituencies? > > Milton and Jolie, > > Thanks for the information. > > I'm still conflicted on whether an academic constituency would be > worthwhile. > If it is needed to help balance the power distribution in NCSG because of > the way ICANN/GNSO views NCSG then it's a necessary evil, given that we had > the formal constituency model imposed upon us by the Board (that's my > reading of the charter process anyway - that NCSG had a majority opposed to > constituencies and that we weakened the Board's requirements for giving > power to constituencies but couldn't manage to avoid them having some > significant effect). We should think carefully as to whether and how to work > it. I think most of the academics here would be willing to work to only > exert any power that came with a constituency in such a way as to > counterbalance other unrepresentative power blocs rather than to try to > exert our own power. While the academics might have other personal > interests, of course, most of us I think are here because we have an > interest in trying to make ICANN fairer and better run. On balance, > therefore, with some careful drafting of a charter I might be willing to > support an academic constituency. > > > > -- > Professor Andrew A Adams [log in to unmask] > Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration, and Deputy > Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics > Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan http://www.a-cubed.info/ >