In response to the Gilmore interview, Salon received an angry letter from ICANN's chief counsel, Joe Sims, and was also approached by Esther Dyson, who sought an opportunity to explain some of the "nuances" of ICANN's operations. Dyson: You've got structures that make elections real, and one argument against them is -- I've heard from members who say "In my country we've had too many elections where you just go out and round up a few hundred thousand peasants and you pay them and get votes." And that's what the ICANN board in part is scared of. ... Let's get real. In the scheme of things, the amount of money involved here is kind of piddling. A lot of people that talk about this think a million dollars is a big deal. I'm going to venture a guess that ICANN feels that the elections had too high a percentage of "hackers" participating, and this lead to the election of "hackers" to their board, whom they don't feel represent the real user community. They probably have no idea how to get the people they feel are the user community interested enough to participate, so they have concluded that elections don't work. Its interesting that Dyson is trying to distance herself from ICANN, while still supporting it. Playing both sides? Or maybe she feels that the end may come, and doesn't want to be swept away with ICANN when it happens. Salon.com Technology | Esther Dyson defends ICANN | 
