> Universities/Academics (the current NCUC leadership could grow that without much pain) This keeps coming up. I thought it had been put to bed last time (almost all the academics currently in NCUC indicated it was a bad idea. First, please understand that academics in general do not represent Universities in general. Academics with an interest in (Non-commercial) ICANN issues can come from two distinct camps: those with an interest in academic society or other academic usages of domain names (personal academic blogs, academic project sites); and those with an interest in communications policy etc. Many of the latter will also have engagement in the former, but most of the academics who care enough to spend the time to get involved do so because their academic research is in related areas: Internet governance, Internet technology, public information policy, information ethics. Universities, on the other hand, provided they are non-profit, fit, to my mind, fit clearly within the existing NPOC group. I see little difference between the needs of a local instantiation of the YMCA/YWCA, a local branch of the Red Cross/Crescent/Star and a non-profit university. As an academic engaged in information ethics research my role is analysis, comment and input into public policy matters. I have in the past given advice to my employer on relevant matters and could conceivably be appointed their representative to NPOC, say, but actually I'd rather they pointed an administrative staff person at such a role if they wanted it, because I'd rather follow my academic calling of "speaking truth to power" rather than represent the particular interests of my employer (which are not always the same as those of their academics). While I have great respect for the other academics in NCUC, I have no desire to form a separate constituency of "information policy academics" with them since We do not try to represent our own corner, but to comment and promote ideals such as freedom of speech, privacy, good governance, fair markets and the right place to do this is within a broad non-commercial users 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/