I fully agree with the sense of the comments posted here on non-commercial stakeholder effort within ICANN’s policy process. The dedicated volunteers within NCSG work very hard, are too few in number, carry a disproportionate load, and make a significant impact. These comments are addressed to the challenges ahead.  

My earlier reference to “Whack-a-Mole” referred to the fact that the non-commercial sector is at a resource disadvantage compared to the commercial and government stakeholders who maintain a strategy of sustained effort at multiple levels, inside and outside ICANN, in addressing the ICANN/Internet policy agenda. The challenge is to get beyond that disadvantage.  Based on lessons learned from stakeholder mobilization elsewhere, the options are pretty clear. If a constituency cannot mobilize resources it mobilizes people. If the policy agenda is both within and outside ICANN that mobilization has to promote engagement inside and outside ICANN. [When I discussed this layered strategy with CSG members, during an interview, they dismissed it].

Constituency members within NCSG are already stretched thin. This means developing strategic alliances with others. While ICANN pursues ICANN-centric outreach efforts focused on drawing stakeholders into the ICANN policy agenda, others should pursue Internet-centric outreach efforts. Efforts to be focused on drawing stakeholders into a policy agenda more directly linked to their interests as stakeholders at the national and global level. Success on this front will enhance the leverage and legitimacy of NCSG stakeholder voices within the ICANN policy process.

With regard to how non-commercial stakeholders work together here, it is not about the relative size of membership lists within ICANN. Expanding those lists may produce more volunteer effort, will produce more logistical problems around face-to-face events, but will hardly make a dent in the extent to which there is a wider global non-commercial stakeholder representation within ICANN policy development. Policy is about more than good ideas versus bad ideas, it is frequently about our stakeholder interests relative to your stakeholder interests. That is why we prefer democracy over technocracy, and that needs broader knowledgeable engagement and reasoned dialogue around policy.

The non-commercial stakeholder voice within ICANN is strengthened when a dedicated non-commercial volunteer core within the policy process can point outside the walls of ICANN and say “Do you hear what those voices are saying?”. It is strengthened when the other stakeholder groups hear those voices directly , outside ICANN, when they are elsewhere lobbying on behalf of their own stakeholder interests.

As the new Chair of the NPOC policy committee this is the two-path strategy I am proposing. We will increase the NPOC participation in internal policy discussion, and we will work with others to strengthen not-for-profit knowledge and engagement in Internet policy, both within and outside ICANN.

Sam L. 


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"It is a disgrace to be rich and honoured
in an unjust state" -Confucius
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Dr Sam Lanfranco (Prof Emeritus & Senior Scholar)
Econ, York U., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA - M3J 1P3
email: [log in to unmask]   Skype: slanfranco
blog:  http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com
Phone: +1 613-476-0429 cell: +1 416-816-2852