Presentation of evidence in support for UIA proposal
by the Non-commercial Community
The following text is based on extracts from Sections
C35 and C36 of the UIA's proposal to ICANN.
It includes subsequent comments in red italics
to correct any impression of misrepresentation of the nature of that
support.
UIA maintains inter-related databases on more than 56,000 world problems,
50,000 inter-governmental and non-governmental (NGO) organizations (and
their meetings), 33,000 organizational action strategies, 3,200 human
values and 4,800 approaches to human development, as well as integrative
concepts and metaphors of relevance to governance. Items in each database
are extensively hyperlinked among themselves and to other databases.
URLs are provided to more than 26,000 Internet resources of international
bodies [access via www.uia.org/data.htm].
The chart below provides a sampling of prominent international non-profit
organizations to update their profile in the UIA Yearbook of International
Organizations. A more complete list appears in Appendix
D.
Criticism of UIA's approach in demonstrating support [also on separate document]: The chart
below (and the Appendix from which it was extracted) indicates bodies
that voluntarily respond, on a regular basis, to requests from the UIA
for revision to their profiles in that Yearbook. The more extensive Appendix
listing is headed "Indication of Long-term Pattern of Support for
UIA Registry Activity" . Here "Registry Activity" is understood
by the UIA to mean presentation of such profiles in the Yearbook.. The
Appendix listing is stated to be a "Sample of 542 organizations composed
of 'bodies with other international bodies as members' or 'universal organizations
with members in all continents'.". These 542 are effectively the
beginning of a list of over 30,000 bodies profiled to various degrees
in the Yearbook -- if the list is ordered in terms of degrees of internationality.
The UIA questions the merits of arguments based on "fig leaf"
allegations and has never experienced any need to front itself with "fig
leaves" [more]. The proposal text neither states nor implies
that the organizations listed in the above-mentioned table and Appendix
have indicated their specific support for the UIA / Diversitas bid. Nor
does it claim that they were consulted in relation the bid. Rather the
text argues that through their continuing collaboration with the UIA registry
activity over the years, organizations such as these have indicated a
concrete pattern of support for such registry activity in relation
to their profiling in book, CD or web media. It was further argued in
the proposal (see below) that:
The UIA would like to argue that the "thick registry"
activity in which it has engaged with the long-term collaboration of
thousands of international bodies in practice is a demonstration of
support that is far more eloquent than letters of support. "Thick registry"
profiles maintained with the collaboration of members of the .org community
are in this sense measures of clear support for our work.
Concern has been expressed by a large organization,
by chance prominently displayed in this list, that it has been misrepresented
by its mention in the proposal (as with the others so listed) without
consultation in relation to the proposal context. The UIA wishes to
make clear that these international organization names listed in the
UIA proposal do indeed include those which reflect a higher degree of
internationality than others which might have been listed. As is evident
from the unsystematic ordering in the list, the items are not ordered
by date, nor alphabetically, nor in any other way ; those organizations
that appear at the top do so only as a result of database defaults of
no socio-political relevance. The ten listed in the body of the proposal
were simply those at the top of the longer list assigned to an Appendix
due to its length. Furthermore, the names of such organizations appear
in many published listings of international organizations produced in
reports for different purposes by a wide variety of bodies, notably
for scholarly purposes. Such listings do not normally require the permission
of the name-holder
The concerned organization considers the approach
taken in the UIA proposal to evincing support to be misleading. This
might indeed be the case if "support" is only considered to
be defined in terms of some "consultation" process -- which
is the only methodological approach open to bidders that do not have
a pattern of relationship with .org registrants and those "across
the digital divide" that may become registrants.
But the UIA proposal responds to the specific
request by ICANN to "Submit any evidence that demonstrates support
for your proposal among registrants in the .org TLD, particularly those
actually using .org domain names for noncommercial purposes". The
process of "consultation" is not specifically mentioned (whether
or not it may be considered to have been implied). The UIA proposal
therefore set out to demonstrate a long-term pattern of support for
its registry activity amongst non-profit organizations -- notably amongst
those with websites. The methodological question for ICANN is whether
evidence for such support in past practice is to be considered
effective support for what is envisaged in the proposal. This needs
to be evaluated by ICANN against the significance for future practice
of letters of support which are in no way legally binding on the
bodies supplying them -- and may indeed have been produced without reference
to the competent decision-making authority.
The UIA came into the bidding process too
late to initiate an open consultation process. Its "failure"
to consult with any organizations in no way means that it does not value
the opinion of these organizations, nor does it imply that consultations
will not be made in the future should it become the .org operator. The
UIA also understands only too well that for larger organizations the
correct process of consultation must be scheduled over a longer period
than than available under the ICANN process.
The UIA considered doing an email / web survey
of 30,000 organizations but rejected this for four reasons:
- it had just recently completed another
survey on international meetings (with a response rate noted below
as further concrete evidence of support "across the global internet
community"); it considered that a second survey would be intrusive
and insensitive to the limited resources that many organizations have
to respond to such requests;
- having tracked the uptake by organizations
of websites, the UIA was very aware of the abstruse nature of .org
domain operation for the responsible decision-makers even amongst
organizations with websites;
- even though bodies with email may have
websites, the technical relationship between the two applications
often precludes convenient web surveys and so the result would have
been biased towards those organizations with more sophisticated systems;
- concern was also felt that for support
to be operationally significant rather than well-meaning; a much more
complex process of interaction would have been required with the more
authoritative levels of any organization consulted rather than relying
on interaction with those having the necessary technical understanding
of the issues.
The 15 letters of support included in the
UIA proposal were from small organizations who could respond quickly
to personal requests from UIA staff. They were included to exemplify
the range of bodies from which such letters of support could be obtained
given greater time. We are aware that a similar number of letters were
also sent directly to ICANN in support of our bid.
Such resources position UIA / Diversitas extremely well in terms
of gauging opinions from the international non-profit community as
well as providing a communications vehicle to respond to their views.
A Consensus Driven Process
Diversitas will use a number of approaches to encourage an open,
consensus-driven process, including:
- Meetings around the world, benefiting from Internet technology,
bringing together key stakeholders
- E-mails, faxes and letters to key non-profit constituencies to
gauge their perspectives
- Setting up an interactive web site for selective polling on specific
issues
Diversitas is uniquely qualified to put such communications processes
in place, given UIA's current role as registry for more than 50,000
non-profit organizations globally (most with their own organization
and individual members).
Diversitas is intended to reflect the diversity of the non-profit
community worldwide and those with unique expertise in this area.
UIA will assist in extending its current information flows to include
regular quarterly communications with thousands of non-profits, informing
them of key issues, asking for their views on a wide variety of questions
related to the .org domain, and offering value-added services to them
so that they can better serve their constituencies.
The UIA is sensitive to the fact that there are few, if any, examples
of global, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-sectoral coalitions
managing a long-term project subject to the level of technical requirements
and 24/7 reliability so appropriately stressed by ICANN. UIA / Diversitas
Transition Team will therefore act progressively and prudently to
build up a governance structure that is as responsive as possible
whilst giving priority to continuity of service. The challenge is
to enable experiments in governance and service facilities that do
not place the basic service at risk. There seems to be a strong case
for using simulation techniques for exploring the constraints and
possibilities of more ambitious proposals for governance and services.
Diversitas plans to identify appropriate individuals and organizations
to participate either on its Board of Directors, Policy Advisory Committee
and Technical Advisory Committee for the .org domain. In particular,
there is a set of non-profit coalitions that UIA will contact to encourage
their participation in the consensus-building process on questions
such as:
- How to best develop and market the .org domain for the non-profit
community
- How to offer the most useful value-added Internet services at
the lowest cost to non-profits located around the world
C36. Submit any evidence that demonstrates support
for your proposal among registrants in the .org TLD, particularly those
actually using .org domain names for noncommercial purposes. Support
from diverse noncommercial entities from across the global Internet
community will be considered in the selection.
A number of organizations support the approach taken by UIA. They
believe that both the stability of the .org domain and its continued
development will be best served by a non-profit managing these functions
for the global non-profit community.
There will be more opportunities for participation going forward,
as we develop networked communications with thousands of non-profits
globally (see Section
C35 above).
As a demonstration of support for this bid, ICANN requests letters
of endorsement. A number of letters of endorsement are attached. However,
we believe that other indicators of support may in our case have greater
relevance.
In different ways, each of the indicators below makes the point that
the UIA could not provide the services it does (as described in Section
C15) without the long-term support of the highly disparate, multi-cultural,
multi-lingual community of non-profit bodies.
Voluntary collaboration. In contrast with registries empowered
by a legal (e.g., a business register) or technical (e.g., URL) obligation
to which bodies are impelled to respond, the UIA registry activity
is based on voluntary response. This means that the UIA has had to
develop a quality of caring contact with such bodies that is minimally
invasive, or politically problematic, in order to sustain the level
of support.
"Thick" registry. The UIA would like to argue that the "thick
registry" activity in which it has engaged with the long-term collaboration
of thousands of international bodies in practice is a demonstration
of support that is far more eloquent than letters of support. "Thick
registry" profiles maintained with the collaboration of members of
the .org community are in this sense measures of clear support for
our work.
Interpretation of "representation". Despite its name, the
UIA in no way claims to "represent" the global network of civil society
bodies or their interests. However, it does claim to "present" them
as transparently as possible - and to a much higher degree than is
possible through the filters of layers of "representative" bodies
that are often obliged to present their views in competition with
each other. These bodies are necessarily forced to reduce the many
views of the complex variety of the millions of bodies in the .org
community - through the mechanics of polling and voting systems -
to their binary outcomes. In its registry activity, the UIA claims
to present an ecosystem rather than be primarily responsive to temporarily
dominant perspectives.
Custodial role of UIA full members. To safeguard the integrity
of its registry operations, the UIA has opted for a formula in which
this is guaranteed by co-opted individuals who have in different ways
been associated in positions of high responsibility with respect to
the international nonprofit community in all its variety. They are
of necessity sensitive to its importance and needs. Many have been
directly responsible for the management of one or more individual
organizations, or have been sensitized to their concerns. Use of individuals
with this background has enabled the UIA to avoid the problematic
dynamics of the politics of a highly diverse community of organizations
and agendas that is difficult to reconcile with the long-term development
and maintenance of a registry capacity designed to be responsive to
every organizational perspective.
UN/ECOSOC Resolution. The UIA's work in profiling international
non-profit organizations has been covered by a UN/ECOSOC Resolution
since 20 July 1950 (Resolution 334B (XI)). This post-war resolution
follows support by the UIA for League of Nations registry activity
in the pre-war period (1921-1938), that itself was based on the UIA
registry activity initiated prior to the 1914-1918 war (as acknowledged
in a League Council document, A.43 (B) 1421, 5 September 1921). The
UIA's consultative relationship with the UN since 1951 is based on
this activity.
UNESCO recognition. The UIA's registry work is the basis for
its formal relations with UNESCO dating back to 1952. The UIA has
been involved in UNESCO efforts to evaluate non-governmental bodies,
most recently in 1966 as the leading member of the exercise to assess
the basis for such collaboration and to recommend a new pattern of
relationships. As the intergovernmental body with the prime mandate
for information content and dissemination, UNESCO has also acknowledged
UIA's role as a registry for world problems and strategies in response
to them.
Profiling network of consultative relationships with intergovernmental
bodies. The major UN Specialized Agencies each have relationships
with networks of hundreds of international NGOs - which may each have
relationships with several such agencies. Since 1951, the UIA has
been the only body to document these complex networks - which it has
made navigable since 1995 as hyperlinks.
Online use of the UIA registry by the UN system. 26 agencies
of the UN system acquired network subscriptions as soon as this was
made available online in 2000.
Response rate on UIA questionnaires. The UIA questions some
50,000 international non-profit organizations in a two-year cycle
regarding the profiles maintained on each of them. The response rate
for a core 10,901 "conventional" international bodies, across all
sectors, is 48% within 12 months and 63% over 24 months. Those responding
within 24 months have a total of 233,466 links to 301 countries and
territories (counting multiple links once only), namely 75 % of the
total links to countries for all bodies in that cluster. Each such
link presumably has the potential to generate web traffic - and arguably
might be considered as "supporting" the UIA registry activity through
the respondent parent bodies.
In the case of 9,496 national bodies with some international activity
or preoccupation, the response rates are 18% and 39%, respectively.
The contact also covers profiles maintained on some 25,000 future
international events for which they are responsible. The questioning
procedure uses an evolving mix of post, fax, e-mail and web, according
to the facilities available to the organization.
Survey response rate. Independently of organization profiles,
the UIA also uses a mix of e-mail, fax and web technologies to survey
international non-profit bodies occasionally on issues affecting them.
Most recently, this involved a survey of 8,000 such bodies with e-mail
and web facilities, and organizing international events. The response
rate was 10%.
Standard reference source on statistics on international meetings.
The UIA is recognized as the standard source of international
meeting data obtained from individual international non-profit organizations.
This data is important to the billion dollar "meetings industry" involving
international non-profit organizations responsible for events and
the various industries servicing such events (airlines, hotels, interpreters,
conference centres, etc).
Standard reference source on statistics on international civil
society organizations. The UIA's role as the most comprehensive
source of data on international organizations over a century is widely
acknowledged in academic studies of international relations and civil
society, currently made available in the Yearbook of International
Organizations (volume 5). Most recently
UIA statistical data is now integrated into the new Global Civil
Society Yearbook produced by the Centre for Civil Society of the
London School of Economics.
Integration of UIA electronic profiles into online educational
systems. Several educational systems have explored use of UIA
profiles of organizations, problems or strategies (with or without
permission) as part of course material. The CD variant has been used
experimentally in training programs in developing countries.
Usage of UIA online database data: 48,972 registered users
(access by username/password and IP recognition, both free and paying)
plus about 50,000 listed organizations who all received individual
special accounts allowing them to check their profiles in the UIA
online databases. Percentage distribution of resolved accesses: .com
= 29.38%, .net = 17.29%, .org = 12.49%, .edu = 6.00% (one year average).
Distinct hosts served (one year period): 115,076.
Links to UIA site. Some 2,900 web pages point to somewhere
in the UIA site (www.uia.org) of which 1,230 point directly to its
profile via www.uia.org/data.htm (figures from Google).
Plagiarism as an indicator of "support". During the period
1996-1999, when the percentage of international non-profit organizations
with web sites was less than 20%, the UIA listed all such sites (and
linked to them) in readily accessible pages that were widely indexed
by search engines. As the percentage increased, the UIA was obliged
to provide such links from a database designed to restrict abusive
access.
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