Subject: ICANN, .org & " a total lack of technical due diligence"

From: Gordon Cook <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 14:33:02 -0400

Hi Vint,

Carl Malamud has quite a lot to say about integrity at 
http://not.invisible.net/signals/bin/000270.shtml

I'd say that engineering without integrity is a bit flawed wouldn't you?

Here is an excerpt from Carl's URL sited above.

While a total lack of technical due diligence is not unheard of in 
such procurements, it was also a surprise to see the paper trail 
taken at face value in two other areas:

1. When reading a report, it's always nice to know a bit about the 
authors. We're not really familiar with the Gartner Group or the MIS 
managers who prepared the technical evaluations, so we prepared a 
little "getting to know you" presentation. While we've never been a 
Gartner client, we were surprised that Gartner did not disclose that 
it has had significant business relationships with NeuStar, VeriSign, 
and Register.Com.

2. "A demonstrated ability" was shown by many supplicants based on 
prior experience in the business. We looked around, but it appears 
that none of the reports that document actual performance results of 
the established players are on-line.

ICANN's YOUR organization Vint.  Are you going to vote for the 
cronyism as documented above?

Your actions in leading ICANN are creating quite a capstone for your 
career.  I continue to be surprised that you are willing to be judged 
by your seminal role in the creation and leadership of ICANN.

Once again Froomkin has it right: http://www.icannwatch.org/article.php?sid=927

Old Internet Thinking RIP
Posted by michael on Friday, August 30 @ 11:13:13 MDT
Contributed by michael

Carl Malamud, one of the sponsors of the IMS proposal for .org, has 
posted his response to ICANN's tentative decision to give .org to an 
as yet non-existent body to be created somehow or other by its good 
friends at ISOC. The essay demonstrates why IMS's hopes, and the rest 
of us probably, are doomed.

See, the problem is that Malamud's entire essay is consumed with 
irrelevant Old Internet considerations like running code, technical 
merit, and whether it makes sense to evaluate a program without ever 
looking at it. This IETF-style approach to the problem of finding 
reasonable solutions to problems has no place in the Brave New 
Internet of today where expensive consulting firms decide that 
proposals produced by expensive consulting firms have the most merit, 
where merit is defined as producing familiar-looking paper. Only a 
dinosaur would have failed to notice that "the ICANN .ORG review 
mechanism literally restates the ICANN new open gTLD contract award 
order.". Only an ostrich would fail to see that ICANN has learned 
nothing and forgotten nothing from the gTLD rollout debacle. Recall 
that mere factual errors were no reason to upset the gTLD allocations.

Read Malamud's essay. Don't miss the Grrrrrreat slides. Weep or gnash 
your teeth. There's not much else you can do now that the ICANN Board 
is preparing to undermine just about every form of outside 
accountability that might be brought to bear on it.

{snip}

-- 
========================================================
The COOK Report on Internet, 431 Greenway Ave, Ewing, NJ 08618 USA (609)
882-2572 (phone & fax) [email-masked]  Subscription info & 
prices at   http://cookreport.com/subscriptions.shtml    Summary of 
content for 10 years at http://cookreport.com/past_issues.shtml 
Here Comes Asset Based Telecom
A 178 page  - Aug Oct issue available at http://cookreport.com/11.05-6.shtml
========================================================

---

From: Carl Malamud <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 12:35:08 -0700 (PDT)

> I'd say that engineering without integrity is a bit flawed wouldn't you?

The thing I hate the most about the entire ICANN process is the fact that 
problems with their process gets spun into personal attacks.  Vint's
got plenty of integrity, as do all the staff I've dealt with at ICANN.
We've got a problem with their process, but let's not turn that into
ad hominum attack.  Reasonable people can differ and discuss without
calling each other names or impuning their motives.

Regards,

Carl

---

From: Gordon Cook <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 16:45:38 -0400

Carl ...great... no problem.  Your web page cited below essentially 
invites the internet technical community and anyone else who wishes 
to take the time to try out your "roots" and your 'branches' and that 
on the merit of working running code tell the ICANN evaluators that 
they made a mistake and that they should as a result rethink their 
award intentions.

Yes?

OK  Terrific.  I wish you luck.  So does Michael Froomkin, who I 
don't think believes that your approach will work.  Were it to work 
great.

So OK lets go process and maybe THIS time it will work,  since your 
technical standing and reputation are superb.  However: color me 
sceptical that your strategy will make a difference.

Yes we certainly do have a problem with the ICANN process.   Who 
leads ICANN?  Who makes the decisions?  I suggest that Vinton Cerf as 
Board Chair of ICANN is at least the TITULAR leader of ICANN.  I 
suggest it should not be regarded as ad hominem or  personal to ask 
ICANN's Board Chair to speak out and take a strong position on what 
you have pointed out on your own web page looks to be a miscarriage 
of justice.

I am discouraged because the last time the leadership issue arose on 
this list was on august 1 and 2 with Karl's court victory.   What 
Vint tried to maintain on this list was true was shown by Karl and 
Michael Froomkin to be erroneous.  Vint seems to be willing to follow 
the ICANN party line.  In my opinion that party line has a poor 
record for factual accuracy let alone good policy.

It would be nice to see this change.  I and a lot of other folk have 
given up any hope however.

I support your effort and wish you luck.

---

From: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 10:19:23 -0400 (EDT)

Gordon Cook does not have my permission to speak for me.  I wish he'd stop
it.  

I can speak for myself just fine, and often do.  You will find my academic
work on my my homepage http://www.law.tm .  You will find some of my more
journalistic ICANN-related work, at http://www.icannwatch.org

-- 
		Please visit http://www.icannwatch.org
A. Michael Froomkin   |    Professor of Law    |   [email-masked]
U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA
+1 (305) 284-4285  |  +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)  |  http://www.law.tm
                      -->It's very hot here.<--