The three existing supporting organizations-the Address Supporting Organization (ASO), the Protocol Supporting Organization (PSO) and the Domain Names Supporting Organization (DNSO)-provide open routes of input into decision-making by ICANN.
The supporting organizations each directly elect three members to the ICANN board. Further, each of the SOs, at least in principle, is consulted prior to board decisions affecting their particular area of interest. The supporting organizations also are, as a formal matter, open to participation by anyone that attends their meetings or participates in their listserv discussions. Thus, any member of the public can indirectly participate in ICANN decision-making through participation in the supporting organizations.
There are, however, several limitations on the adequacy of this avenue for public participation. First, the supporting organizations are each forums of particularized and specialized interest-they do not easily contain the interests of the general public in ICANN's issues. The ASO and PSO in particular are viewed as bodies of technical specialists which, although formally open to any member of the public, are not natural or comfortable forums for general public participation. Past attempts to house the concerns of the general public within the DNSO have been unsuccessful. Indeed, the lengthy, and as yet unresolved, debate over whether even to create an Individual Domain Names Holder Constituency suggests that there is not any constituency group within the DNSO that provides a forum for general public concerns. Even the IDNH constituency, were ICANN to charter it, would speak only for a small class of the general publicthose individuals who own domain names-but not for the public at large.
Further, the supporting organizations are largely viewed as forums for corporate and business interests within ICANN, not for individual interests. This perception weakens the ability of the SOs to serve as an effective vehicle for public participation within ICANN. It is one available route for expression of public voices, but an avenue with inherent limitations.
| 1.3.2 Definition of "participation" | 1.3.2.2 Participation through governments |
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