ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) needs revamp...

generic top- level domain name issues, but must become more transparent, representative, flexible and capable of finding consensus, the LSE said. The 6 GNSO constituencies -- intellectual property, business, non-commercial users, ISPs, registrars and registries -- offer a “potential home” for nearly all interests, they may reflect turn of the century conditions to the point that they lack flexibility to include potential new parties from commercial and civil society, the report said. “Worrying signs of dominance” of some constituencies by a few people and a tendency among constituency members not to participate in policy development are of concern, the report said. Constituencies and the GNSO Council display lack of transparency by allowing only ICANN “deep insiders” easy access to information, it said, noting the “arduous” process of reaching agreement on policy and the failure to subject GNSO policies to comprehensive impact assessments. The review said any changes to GNSO operations must adhere to 4 principles. Operations must be more visible to a wide range of interested parties, and constituencies and Council must be more representative. Structures need adaptability and should be able to serve old and new stakeholders. GNSO Council operations need revamping to make it easier to reach consensus, it said. Among the review’s 24 recommendations: (1) Halve constituencies to 3, on registration, business user and civil society. (2) Create direct ICANN membership for companies, individuals and other entities, assigning new members to one of the new constituencies. (3) End weighted voting in the Council for registration interests but give the Council and business users an effective veto over non- consensus changes. (4) Slash the number of teleconferences the Council holds and pay members’ expenses to meet face-to- face. (5) Set term limits of 3-4 years for GNSO Council members. (6) Raise the threshold for consensus on policy from 66% to 75%. Having 3 constituencies has merit “because lots of big media companies like Disney, Time Warner and News Corp. get 2 constituencies to control,” noncommercial Users Constituency Council representative Robin Gross said. But Gross blasted giving business and registration interests 5 votes each -- and a built-in veto -- to civil society’s 3: “Why should commercial interests get a veto right on public policy, but not public interests? This is not acceptable.” ICANN board member Susan Crawford called the report’s focus on the “impenetrability of ICANN’s work” refreshing. “It’s as if the LSE team went on a trip into a tangled terrain full of oral history and oddly-shaped reports. The civil and learned voice of the review expresses amazement at what they found in this strange land,” she blogged. Researchers were stunned at what they didn’t find, such as coherence, standardization and rational websites, she said. She hailed the current GNSO’s work, but added, “change is surely needed.”