COVER -> MEMOIRS OF THE INFORMATION AGE
I will give it to Mr. Amis that over time he has both criticized ICANN's operations and also gone to the trouble to interview it's Board Chairman, Ms. Esther Dyson, here at G21. But the fact remains that, by following his advice to take part in the dialogue about the future of the Internet and the Web, I became victim to another ICANN screw-up. I am being spammed.
Half the people spamming me are taking the attitude of "I'm in contact with a new international community! Let's all talk to each other."
I can understand this, but I also believe that I should be able to *choose* which community I am part of, which is not what is happening in this instance. Simply because I signed up to be an At-Large member of ICANN doesn't mean I want to be part of a new mailing list. Ask me first, please!
"Yeah, I could easily solve that problem for you... But what's in it for me?"
Event # 211: SINK OR SHRINK
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I am writing this to the G21 because it's Mr. Amis' Web magazine and I hope that he will show the grace of allowing me to write about a mistake he made in giving his reserved endorsement to ICANN's efforts.
I'm also writing this because I am a businessman and citizen involved with the Internet daily. I am concerned about the future of Internet and want to believe that by taking part in citizen adminstration of this new medium and its affect on the new economy I can help stave off governmental interference.
It is not that I am anti-government. I am not. My concern is that people who actually understand technology, the Internet, and the new economy regulate it rather than bureaucrats and politicians who have other, and often misguided agendas.
So taking part in programs like ICANN At-Large membership seemed to me at the time to be the right thing to do.
Today, I have concerns and more reservations. Today I see this spam attack as another evidence of government darlings, with the support of the United States Department of Commerce, beginning a new program without forethought! I never should have been spammed. Somebody somewhere among the members of the At-Large program team should have foreseen this problem. That they didn't makes me angry.
I also believe that it should be a bottom-up and not a top-down structure. My idea scenario is that we model it on the collaborative efforts of the Open Source movement. I believe that can work for us.
But, now more than ever, I am troubled with how ICANN does business.
My hope is that by sending this message to Mr. Amis and G21 the magazine will make an effort to contact ICANN officials and have them speak with us publically about this latest fiasco.
At the very least, I'm hoping that this e-mail will be published for other technology professionals to read.
Every week in "Memoirs of the Information," this magazine encourages us to "Take the Risk of Involvement." Well, I did and I got burned.
I want to believe that this situation will be addressed.
TAKE THE RISK OF INVOLVEMENT.
or make it.
Meet the new Boss...