Subject: Press Release: ICANN Attempts to Co-opt Anyone Who Attends It's Bogoid Meetings

From: Bob Allisat <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 07:25:14 -0500 (EST)

ICANN Attempts to Co-opt Anyone Who Attends It's Bogoid Meetings

TORONTO, CA, Nov. 17, 1998 -- Over 99,999,800 members of the
international Internet community gathered on the net today. As they
do every day in ever increasing numbers. Not to advise and question
the initial board and management of the ultimately silly
self-appointed experts and puffed up shmucks. Not at the first of
many allegedly open public meetings to be held around the world. Not
even participating in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers' useless Saturday Cambridge event through broken 
so-called real-time webcast and highly selective real-time email 
comment. No these people were there exchanging real e-mail, building 
their WWW sites, making new fiends, finding old ones and everything 
else they have done to make this medium  what it is. And they are 
still without the new choices and generally accessible services the
engineering insiders backing the ICANN paper dictators have delayed 
for so long.

"It was a useless meeting, drawing together a narrow sliver of
internet insiders naive enough to believe change and consensus was
possible through such a horribly and purposefully limited
structure," Jonathan Zittrain, Executive Director of the Berkman
Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, which
allegedly facilitated the meeting would have said if he really gave
a shite for more than his blessed reputation. "For ICANN to succeed,
it must abandon such show trial meetings and be responsive to the
diverse voices that were not heard and even ignored when they spoke
-- no easy task for a board devoting it's entire energy and passion
to protecting the power that has seemingly and miraculouly dropped
into their laps from heavan. We're one to talk." Zittrain would have
continued, "The Berkman Center has also been plucked from total
cyber-insignificance for our five minutes of fame and I'm enjoying
all the fun and look forward to fat endowments in the future from 
all this juicey publicity!".

Extensive and comprehensible notes, video or photo records of the
participants and the over-whelming majority of dissenting background
materials were wholey excluded from the all-day ICANN Junta photo-op
and are generally posted in no single location, least of all the
hopelessly star struck and incredibley biassed Berkman Center's
bloody useless web site. Full details of the behind the scenes
events are filtering out as this article is being written. More
information to be found on the IFWP mailing list (to subscribe send
a blank message to: <[email-masked]>) among
other places (<http://fcn.net>).

"This meeting had three broad purposes -- introducing the board as a
faite accompli to the the press and unknowing community of citizens
of the Internet, appearing to foster more consensus and generating
concrete proposals about governance issues such as membership and
board structure and accountability while in actuality stating
nothing substantial will change, and educating the clueless mob
which descended upon our civil gathering about some of the "issues"
we'll be shoving down their (they better be grateful!) throats,"
interim ICANN chairman Esther Dyson woiuld have said had she not
been so tickled pink over finding herself magically transformed into
Goddess of the Internet by ex-God Jon Postel. She'd continue by
sauing: "I'd say it was successful on all three counts, with a lot
of unknowing collaborators being duped to attend from all sides. We
need to beg borrow and steal the impression of people's trust over
time, and I think we took a few useful steps in that direction.
People don't need to believe we'll do anything they want, but they
do need to believe we'll appear to do it while actually doing
diddley-squat beyond building still higher walls around ourselves
and our cushy, newly found, godsend power base that basically
plucked most of us from total fucking obscurity."

"I think we now have the basis on which to pull the wool over the
U.S. Government and way pre-maturely move forward with a transition
agreement with and to dutifuly and quietly shelve the lengthy list
of ICANN action items," ICANN interim president Michael Roberts said
in his heart of hearts. While actually wringing his hands in glee
over being appointed top henchman in the new ICANN Regime, having
been secretly selected **BEFORE** the work of the much publicized
International Forum on the White Paper was completed and having
*directly* participated in it's pre-mature termination via a
conferance call and the cancelation of the much anticipated
"Wrap-up" meeting. Shame on Mr. Roberts! Shame on us for letting it
happen in the first place!

If he knew anything about the truth or history of these events ICANN
initial board member Gregory Crew, speaking for the board's advisory
committee on membership (what committee? who's on it? where and when
does it meet? how does one join it?), said that input on issues was
particularly useful in creating the impression of openess but will
be dutifully ignored as all such procedings in the future will be.
The staff of the Berkman Center, having previously pretended to be
an unbiassed participant, has completely thrown in their lot with
the ICANN usurpers and will aide and abed the committee (what
committee? who's on it? where and when does it meet? how does one
join it?) in the misformulation of informal, self perpetuating power
structures which will be posted for mock public comment prior to any
closed board vote, as called for by the equally bogus ICANN bylaws
which were also created in secret (!).

Separately, ICANN has been pomping the process of Supporting
Organization recognition which is rapidly moving forward in the
exact same manner as the ICANN virtual coup. More nonsense and
double speak will be published by yearend, after which applications
(to whom, from whom, for what, etc?) will be accepted and posted for
more public comment that doesn't ever have to be considered and
won't ever be considered (so don't waste your breath).

Following its completely ludicrous two minute per question Cambridge
monkey show, ICANN is taking it's mawkish, smoking circus bandwagon
on the road to an IAHC-like demise. Its second "open" public meeting
will take place under the auspices of the European Community Private
Sector Panel of Participants (EC-POP) - who the f*ck is that? - ,
hosted by the European Commission, the same people who wanted to
bring brought ya'll the CORE/POC/PAC/DISASTER. All of which will be
happening in Brussels of all places. Another meeting will take place
in Asia probably to mark the complete collapse of all those corrupt
"tiger" economies being kittenized with every passing day. Shouldn;t
be to hard to find a meeting room and willing accomplice for that
one, eh? Detailed information on these and all other public meeting
will be posted  anywhere but the web site of Internet Assigned
Numbers Authority, the shadowy pseudo-group that once served as a
legal front for the now dececeased Jon Postel and ICANN's
predecessor organization. Who exactly is running things at IANA is
unknown except for indications that a major law firm with heavy
connections to trademark holding corporations has virtually
kidnapped the entire process.

Fucking heavan, fucking help us fucking all.

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FOR THE TWISTED PARTY LINE CONTACT:

Esther Dyson, Interim Chairman for Life, 1-212-924-8800,
<[email-masked]>

Michael M. Roberts, Interim El Presidente for Life & CEO,
1-650-854-2108, <[email-masked]>

Gregory Crew, Director For Life, +61-03-9591 0491,
<[email-masked]>

Fred Rackmil, Minister of Propaganda and Doublespeak, phone
1-212-421-0044, fax 1-212-421-0213 444 Madison Ave., New York, NY
10022 <[email-masked]>

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FOR A SEMBLANCE OF THE CONSENSUS WE ARE STRUGGLING TO REACH CONTACT:

Bob Allisat, regular Citizen, <[email-masked]>

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From: Bob Allisat <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 07:25:14 -0500 (EST)

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