Democracy and InterNIC/APNIC/RIPE-NCC

[John LeRoy Crain]

 Larry Vaden <vaden at texoma.net> writes:
 * At 12:51 PM 7/18/97 +0200, John LeRoy Crain wrote:
 * <snip>...</snip>
 * >I agree that US citizens know what their version of democracy is.
 * >However electing someone to represent the citizens only works when you
 * >have citizens. ARIN does not yet have members, so who gets to vote.
 * >
 * >Who is going to decide this? Who is going to contact all the people
 * >with an interest in the Inet, As you don't have members yet, not only
 * >in the US, ARIN is not a registry for the USA only, but in south
 * >American countries other ARIN regions?
 * >
 * >To take a vote you first need to define who the voters are. I would
 * >suggest that the ARIN proposal clearly points to the fact that the
 * >"members" will get a say in what happens. 
 * >
 * >First you need the members and to get them ARIN needs to exist before
 * >hand. 
 * 
 * Hi, John.  It is good to hear from you again.  I hope you will agree to
 * continue helping with the discussion.
 * 
 * As you read the ARIN proposal, how soon after formation of ARIN will an
 * Advisory Council be 100% elected by the members rather than by the BofT?
 

As I understand it:

100% takes a while yes. 

33.33% in year one.
66.66% in year two.


This assumes that the staggered system in the proposal is followed and
nobody leaves the council, for whatever reason.

This means that within two years a majority of the Advisory council
would be directly member elected.

Once ARIN is running there will be yearly, I assume this is a minimum,
member meetings. If the membership clearly stated a wish for the
process to be hastened I do not see how the Advisory Council could
ignore this. 

I suspect that the people originally chosen to sit on the
council will also be representative. They will all be members.

I also suspect that the quality of that council will be high and
therefore that the majority of the members will not wish the
speed of change increased.








 * As you read the ARIN proposal, how soon after formation of ARIN will the
 * BofT be 100% elected by the members rather than by the organizers of ARIN?

Once again yes this takes time. It is staggered for stability.

A very important paragraph in the proposal is:

"This selection process is subject to revision based on community
input."

I interpret this as saying 

"If the members, once there are members, disagree with he process they
can get it changed"


This is my interpretation. I'm assuming good intent from the original
BofT and AC. 

In who's interest is it to ignore the members? 

The people who want to get ARIN going want it to work. It can only
work if the members agree to how it works and who is running it.

My advice, which probably isn't worth much:-), is to work with those
who want an ARIN. Then iron out the wrinkles as a member when it's
running and doing what needs to be done.

There is no perfect system for IPv4 distribution. The one being
suggested works for the RIPE community and the Asian Pacific region.
There is no obvious reason why it won't work in the present InterNIC
area of operation.

The system is dynamic because the members, who are those with the
interest and the knowledge to make the Inet work, can get changes made
when they are needed. 

Not everybody will agree with everything all of the time. Most people
will agree with most things most of the time.  That is how democracy
works.


Kind regards,

John Crain
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 * 
 * I appreciate and value your input.
 * 
 * Best regards,
 * 
 * Larry
 * 
 *