[AfriNIC-rpd] NomCom at AFRINIC-16

[Alan Barrett]

On Fri, 18 May 2012, SM wrote:
> If a member of NomCom is aware of candidates lobbying for votes, 
> it is up to the member to see whether to inform the community 
> about that.  As there hasn't been any report about lobbying for 
> votes up to now, either it did not happen or nobody find that 
> objectionable.

I think that lobbying for votes is OK, but that some lobbying 
methods are not acceptable.

I think that using email addresses or other information harvested 
from WHOIS or internal AfriNIC databases is wrong.  Each database 
(including WHOIS) has implicit or explicit acceptable use policies 
associated with the information, and using the information for 
vote solicitation would be outside that acceptable use policy.

I think that sending email to a "peering" contact address, for any 
purpose other then discussing peering arrangements, is wrong for 
much the same reason.

I have heard allegations that vote solicitation messages were sent 
to AfriNIC contact addresses and to peering contact addresses, but 
I have not seen publicly available evidence.  If such allegations 
are true, especially in the case of WHOIS or AfriNIC internal 
databases, then it's a violation of the terms under which the data 
was made available.  It's unfortunate that the accused persons 
were not given an opportunity to address the allegations during 
the meeting.

--apb (Alan Barrett)