At 11:20 AM 5/25/2016, Niels ten Oever wrote:
I think this is a very weird use of the IETF slogan. The code (IANA functions) is running, and was running, and will be running. That is why the CSG proposal was easier than the CCWG proposal.

I should have been clearer about what I meant.  I wasn't referring to the "code" running the IANA Functions, but the "code" to be incorporated in the new ICANN bylaws.  The purpose of the IETF mantra was to ensure that nothing would be deployed Internet-wide as an Internet standard unless it could be demonstrated that (a) there was a consensus among the community that it was a desirable change, AND (b) that it "worked" - not just in theory, on paper, or in the minds of its designers, but in fact, as demonstrated by an actual working deployment - that it did what it was designed to do and did not have any fatal conflicts with other elements of the system. 

My point was that a delay, along the lines of what Brett is suggesting, would give us a great deal of information that we need about whether the governance scheme actually does what it has been designed to do.  The CCWG Proposal designs an ICANN that, in its governance structure, is unlike any other institution that has ever existed.  That may turn out to have been a very good decision.  But I don't see how anyone, given its astonishing complexity and the sheer number of its moving parts, can be so sure that it will do what it was designed to do, and I see Brett's suggestion as a perfectly reasonable way to achieve at least a degree of certainty about how it will actually operate, in practice.

David





On 05/25/2016 04:40 PM, David Post wrote:
> But the other hals of the old IETF equation is critical, too:  "Running
> Code."  Having arrived at consensus is no guarantee that the system will
> actually work as planned.  Nobody knows if this code will run smoothly
> or not, and it seems perfectly sensible to say we should find that out
> before we adopt it.  Of course, delay has costs - but it has the very
> significant advantage that it is not irrevocable.

--
Niels ten Oever
Head of Digital

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