Re: PAB Opens Mailing List

Kent Crispin (kent@songbird.com)
Sat, 23 May 1998 22:24:34 -0700

On Sun, May 24, 1998 at 12:38:32AM -0400, Jay Fenello wrote:
>
>
> Hi Kent,
>
>
> At 09:53 PM 5/22/98 -0700, Kent Crispin wrote:
> >On Fri, May 22, 1998 at 05:13:33PM -0500, Jim Fleming wrote:
> >> While some people are trying to close
> >> mailing lists...
> >>
> >> Apparently the PAB now has an readable
> >> archive of their mailing list. Only the recent
> >> entries are included.
> >
> >The PAB voted to open the list archive as of Jan 1. This is
> >relatively old news --
>
>
> This might be old news to you, but it certainly is new
> news to me. More importantly, making a list archive
> readable is not the same thing as making a mailing list
> open.
>
> One of the reason's that the Internet community desires
> open and transparent processes is so that all sides in a
> controversy may have an equal opportunity to state their
> position. In other words, you are more likely to hear
> opposing points of view on an *open* list.

Indeed. That is why gtld-discuss exists. The PAB list is for PAB to
conduct its business, and is the means by which PAB votes.

> With this in mind, I would like to make some comments
> on your PAB report:
[...]
> In case you'd forgotten, Magaziner came on the scene with a very
> large feather in his cap. He had just completed "A Framework for
> Global Electronic Commerce," a blue print that was extremely well
> received in the US *and* Europe.

Of course we hear from different people. People I know who talk to
congressional staffers say that Magaziner is known for the health care
fiasco. They say other other things as well.

[...]

> Kent, you make it sound like Magaziner was waiting around twiddling
> his thumbs until a political "opportunity" presented itself.

Didn't say that. I have no direct knowledge of how Magaziner spends
his time between assignments.

> You go
> on to imply that Magaziner jumped into the DNS fracus for completely
> self-serving reasons.

I don't think Magaziner "jumped into the DNS fracas" -- I think he
was pushed. But I certainly do believe that he is trying to make the
most of it.

> I disagree.
>
> In fact, most government types considered the DNS situation to be
> a "tar-baby", Washington speak for something that is sticky, messy,
> and likely to smear anyone who touches it.

Yep -- I'm sure Magaziner would rather have chosen some more pleasant
task with which to redeem himself. But my impression is that he
wasn't in a position to pick and choose.

> Magaziner is involved for the same reasons that the other members
> of the Inter-Agency Task Force are involved -- because the MoU and
> the POC/PAB/CORE plan were creating havoc in the Internet community.

The MoU wasn't creating havoc in the Internet community. The giant
majority of the Internet community didn't care. Most of the
complaints came from a very vocal, tiny minority.

-- 
Kent Crispin, PAB Chair			"No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com			the thief he kindly spoke...
PGP fingerprint:   B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44  61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55
http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html