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As internet use expands worldwide, the United States said Wednesday it will give other governments and the private sector a greater oversight role in an organization whose decisions affect how computers relay traffic such as email and Twitter posts.

The move comes after European regulators and other critics have said the U.S. government could wield too much influence over a system used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Those critics have complained, among other things, about the slow rollout of internet addresses entirely in languages other than English.

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http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/09/30/internet-corporation-assigned-names-numbers-domain-website.html

or shortened as:
http://snipurl.com/s8lcy

It is somewhat ironic that your comments are conveyed – unedited and in real-time on one of our newest channels designed to provide full transparency and engagement with our stakeholders and members.

I am struck that your observations seem to be rooted in some unfortunately very commonly held mis-conceptions about CIRA’s mandate and governance structure. Allow me to clarify that context, which will in turn address your areas of concern.

CIRA is not a federal government organization. We are a not-for profit corporation, accountable to an elected Board of Directors. As you know, our election process is currently underway, and members of the corporation from across Canada are voting for Directors online, as we speak.

You mention concerns with respect to federal legislations such as Official Languages and Access to Information (ATIP). Neither of these pieces of legislation are applicable to our circumstance given that CIRA is not a government entity.

We are committed to providing fully bilingual service to our registrants and registrars in keeping with Canada’s linguistic duality. For your information, our blog infrastructure follows industry best practice among private sector and NGO social media forums wherein comments are posted in the language of origin of the writer. This practice is widely followed nationally and internationally, given the dynamic, constantly changing nature of the medium. If we receive questions in French, a French-language response will be provided.

You may be interested to know that CIRA is recognized internationally for its stewardship of the dot-ca domain as a key public resource. I was privileged to join the organization as President and CEO 20 months ago. During my brief tenure, I have been elected the Vice Chair of the ccNSO (http://ccnso.icann.org/), the organization within ICANN, comprised of all the national registry operators like CIRA. In addition, I am the Chair of the Strategic and Operational planning working group, the group that actually facilitates input for the global community of country code registry operators into the ICANN Strategic planning process.

To provide you with a brief glimpse of our leadership and reputation in the internet space, you may be interested to learn that when the newly minted Obama administration made its first stop at an ICANN meeting, they chose to meet with only three registry operators, of which I was one, proudly representing the dot-ca.

In terms of your inquiries around financials, I refer you to our financial statements on our website at http://www.cira.ca/annual-reports/2009/en/index.html which are absolutely transparent. You are correct that costs have escalated – as demonstrated in detail in our financials; this increase is directly attributable to an investment in replacing the entire registry, as well as updating the industry standard protocol. Investments have also been made in marketing and communications, such as the creation of our updated website and blog.

I invite you to check out our website where you’ll find full postings of our Board minutes – a Board that effectively represents Canada’s dot-ca interests with broad representation from a range of stakeholders, including Industry Canada.

CIRA does not operate “behind closed doors” as you suggest. To be fair, we operate our culture, processes, systems and Board meetings in a remarkably open and transparent fashion as evidenced precisely by this engagement online.

Byron…If you are are reading this, you are taking CIRA down the wrong road. From what we see, CIRA’s operating costs have gone through the roof since you took over. Moreover, membership engagement is at an all time low. Nice work buddy! If CIRA needs to give away several thousands of dollars of techno gear to attract people to the AGM, it can only mean that CIRA has rendered itself irrelevant to Canadians under your Board’s leadership.

What Canadians want to see is transparency and accountability. Maybe CIRA should listen to folks who know what they are talking about–folks like Professor Michael Geist.

Here’s an accountability test… Is CIRA prepared to fully disclose to total cost of the AGM–including door prizes, hotel rooms, catering, Board dinners, and all the other perks that remain hidden and obscure to domain name holders, members, and the Canadian public?

What Canadians want to see is CIRA become as accountable and transparent as the Government of Canada. Ever heard of ATIP? It is strange that CIRA can still get away with policy in making behind closed doors. Hiding behind corporate rules will not work anymore. Full disclosure. Nothing less please. Unless CIRA wakes up soon, things will begin to change once Canadians start writing to MPs and Minister Clement.

And your English-only Blog is an insult to all French speaking Canadians and the people of Québec. You better fix that soon. Frankly, I feel like filing a complaint to the Commissioner of Official Languages…or even better…the Bloc Québecois! You are giving separatists another good reason not to trust anything that comes out of Ottawa. Your insensitivity to Francophones is sad but reflective of CIRA’s way of doing business.

CIRA cannot hide the fact that it is a creation and instrument of the Government of Canada. The Government of Canada created CIRA, and the Goverment of Canada can easily turf the CIRA Board.

So let’s see if this Blog entry gets posted…

Good luck Byron! You will need it unless your organization wakes up soon. The CIRA Board is so out of touch with today’s Canadian reality…but that will soon change.

Brooks McMaster
Sarnia

In the past it had been criticized for lack of transparency and the tendency to do deals behind closed doors. In fact, CIRA ceased making financial contributions to ICANN at one point to register our unhappiness with this situation. ICANN has improved in the meantime, but it is safe to say that some of their decision making processes leave the community scratching our collective heads.

Another issue that has been subject to significant criticism is the way that ICANN has tried to introduce new gTLDs.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/icann-releases-new-gtld-guidelines.ars

Complaints include timing, cost, buckling to trademark interests and more. Further ICANN has vacillated on how they treat IP interests over time, which has not been helpful.

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but timing, transparency, flip-flops are all part of the milieu that led me to make the comment that ICANN has a few warts.

I appreciate the effort, and especially the courage of Mr. Holland taking the time to bring to us his picks of Internet related blips and hiccups that affect the Internet and domain owners. I will definitely RSS this one.

~Jim~

Not much shows up in a Google search for “warts of ICANN” (other than a top link for http://www.genitalwartreport.com):
http://www.google.com/search?q=warts+of+ICANN

Thanks for shining some light on this. All kidding aside, if those warts push governance into the hands of UN, it obviously will be a big disaster.