JAPANESE AUTHOR PROTESTS MISREPRESENTATION BY ICANN'S ALSC

OPEN LETTER TO ICANN AND ALSC

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey CA 90292-6601

Dear At Large Study Committee and ICANN board members,

Your organization recently issued a Final Report on ICANN At-Large Membership. When I read the report, I was very astonished to find that it quoted me in a way that completely ignored my actual opinions. Instead, the document used my comments to justify various voting restrictions. I am writing to tell you that I find this to be really unfair.

The portion of the report that particularly concerns me reads as follows:

"The ALSC is concerned by some evidence that the very low entrance barrier in last year's At-Large election may have resulted in a large enrollment of people who were not actively interested in ICANN, but who enrolled only because it was easy, or who were 'encouraged' to do so simply because of nationalistic competition.

"For example, Toshimaru Ogura, author of 'Japanese Experience about ICANN Election Campaign,' states, 'It was clear they disregarded the intent of ICANN's election, and that JIF [Japan Internet Forum] was set-up at the direction of MPT [Ministry of Postal and Telecommunications] to get a Japan (not Asia) Board Member. Private sector was involved in the JIF at the direction of the MPT. The private sector and the government are not separate in Japan; only excluding government is not enough. Several ISP's in Japan developed a campaign for ICANN elections. A special web page was created to promote Japanese votes. Several companies directed their employees to register. For example, according to an internal document from Hitachi Corp., it was assigned to produce 1500 registrations, and management assigned three registrations for each office and section, and required a registration report to meet quota.'

"Domain name ownership, cost and verification, and membership fees may help deter problems such as nationalistic competition and involvement of disinterested individuals, as well as the establishment of election rules and consequences for breaking the rules."

In fact, I am against further voting restrictions. But because of the way my comments were cited, your report may deceive people who do not know my background regarding ICANN At Large issues.

More specifically, in my view, ICANN should not place any further restrictions on its terms of membership, even if, during the last election, the Japanese government mobilized people who had little interest in the ICANN process. Rather, I propose that ICANN should resolve the issues posed by such top down election campaigning and do a better job educating Internet users. Also I strongly insist that global democracy is necessary for Internet governance and that all users should have the right to participate in this decision making process.

Unfortunately, ICANN and the ALSC have ignored these ideas and used only the portion of my comments that are in their favor.

So I would like you to answer the following questions.

1. Why did you cite my arguments without mentioning my main contentions?

2. What do you think about my assertion that more participatory processes (based on global democracy ideals) are necessary for the ICANN At Large membership structure? I am sending my formal suggestions to you once more (as an appendix to this letter). If you want to quote me, you should at least critique my ideas and explain why your more restrictive proposal is legitimate.

3. I fear that the people who read the portion of the ALSC report that quotes me may misinterpret my views. Therefore I fear other civil society groups may lose confidence in me. What do you think about this?

Best regards,

Toshimaru Ogura
NaST (NCDNHC member organization)
JCA-Net Board member (Japan)
ogr@nsknet.or.jp

See the posted letter with Appendix here.

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