-------- Original Message -------- Subject: ICANN's missing ombuds (fixed typos) Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 18:13:06 -0500 From: Jonathan Zittrain <zittrain@private> To: declan@private Ethan Katsh is one of the most consummately reasonable people I've ever met. He studies dispute resolution, and has quietly blandished ICANN for a period of years to include a simple form of accountability in its structure. He succeeded twice -- an older set of ICANN bylaws had a section about chartering an independent review panel, and a set of amendments in December '02 requires ICANN to have an ombudsperson. These successes are rather hollow, since while pointing to these reforms in a series of reports to the US Dept of Commerce and others, ICANN never appointed the panel and hasn't hired an ombuds. Ethan's description of the situation is laid out in a letter that's as temperate as it is devastating: see <http://www.odr.info/icann/>. Politech has followed ICANN's ups and downs since its inception; I wonder if anyone out there has ideas about how to actually press the institution to be true to its own rules -- or to offer a persuasive explanation about why it so far hasn't. ...JZ Jon Zittrain Harvard Law School Jack N. & Lillian R. Berkman Assistant Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies Faculty Co-Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/zittrain> _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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