Subject: Fostering productive compromise?!

From: Jay Fenello <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 18:41:46 -0500

This posting is about ICANN, the new not-for-profit 
corporation that the U.S. Government is considering 
to take over the administration of Internet resources.  

Here are some excerpts from an excellent article at:  
	http://www.newsbytes.com

>ICANN Meeting Produces Mixed Reactions 11/16/98
>By Robert MacMillan
>
>"I am very disappointed with [w]here
>this board is and where it's going," Fenello told Newsbytes. "They
>have had a lot of opportunities to address these concerns of
>openness and trust and accountability... yet their position remains
>entrenched... (they say) 'We want to do what we want to do, and we
>want to do it behind closed doors,' and that's a problem."
>
>The purpose of the closed meetings is to help speed up the
>decision-making process, and to not get bogged down in a miasma
>of micromanagement, but Dyson said the board indeed is "transparent"
>enough at this time.
>
>Fenello said more openness could have been achieved in a compromise
>that would have allowed the meetings to be closed but would have
>made board members' voting records public.
>
>"There is, of course, a spectrum across which you can have
>accountability and openness," Fenello said. "One end is closed
>meetings and closed decisions and verdicts handed down from on high.
>The other is where every nuance is public and discussed and made
>available."
>
>Rather than those, he said, "Someone suggested a very reasonable
>approach to give them confidentiality and privacy would be to (apply)
>the Supreme Court standard... where they publish what they decided
>and why, and who voted for what."
>
>Dyson said she disagrees with ideas like this, adding that it "does
>not foster productive compromise."

Respectfully,

Jay Fenello
President, Iperdome, Inc.  
404-943-0524  http://www.iperdome.com

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From: "David R. Newman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 16:19:28 +0000 (GMT Standard Time)

The model of publishing the minutes of the meetings, including the 
decisions and voting, is frequently used by central banks. For example, 
the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee publishes a record of how 
it comes to its interest rate decisions at every meeting, now that the 
UK Government no longer has any role in setting interest rates.

Over the Internet we could have distributed decision-making, using 
subtle consensus voting tools like the preferendum. Those afraid of 
arguments are just inexperienced in the subtleties of consensus 
decision-making and conflict resolution. They should learn from 
Northern Ireland.
----------------------
Dr. D. R. Newman, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's School of Management,
BELFAST BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland (UK). http://www.qub.ac.uk/mgt/
FAX: +44-1232-249881 Tel. +44-1232-335011 mailto:[email-masked]

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From: "David R. Newman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 16:19:28 +0000 (GMT Standard Time)