(Apologies for cross posting) ICANN has announced a new public comment forum and list of questions related to principles of transparency and accountability: http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-16oct06.htm "Responses are sought by October 31, 2006. Based on the responses received and other research, a first draft of the principles will be published for community comment in November, 2006. It is hoped that the Management Operating Principles will be adopted by the Board as part of the Strategic Plan at the Sao Paulo meeting." Among the specific questions ICANN is asking is, "What standards of transparency are appropriate in ICANN operations and activity?" The obvious answer is that the appropriate standard of transparency is set by ICANN's Bylaws: "the maximum extent feasible". It's impossible to tell from the announcment if someone at ICANN wants to change that standard. It's odd that this is intended for inclusion in ICANN's Strategic Plan. The only non-spam comments submitted to ICANN's previous public forum on the draft Strategic Plan were mine, related to exactly this issue. But until now, ICANN has entirely ignored them: http://forum.icann.org/lists/stratplan-draft-comments/msg00000.html http://forum.icann.org/lists/stratplan-draft-comments/ Comments can be sent to <principles-comments@icann.org>, and can be viewed at <http://forum.icann.org/lists/principles-comments/>.