August 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Incomplete quote on the future of IDN TLDS
When asked by an Internet-friend whether there will be single-character TLDs in IDN and non-IDN, I responded. My response was quoted incompletely In the Warrens’ Washington Internet Daily as:
“I think you will definitely get [China/Japan/Korea] single-character IDN TLDs, both country-code and generic,” said Avri Doria, an ICANN participant and adjunct professor at Lulea...
2 tags
ICANN recognizes Palestine as a country.
Some have argued that ICANN sees itself as a government, with the rights and privileges of a government. I have strongly argued against this. In the ICANN Board meeting of 5 August 2010, the Board made a pronouncement that has perhaps convinced me that I am wrong. Among the decisions reportedly made by the ICANN Board in this meeting was the following:
a. Occupied Palestine Territory
...
March 2010
3 posts
4 tags
Expressions of Interest, wisps of smoke, billions...
I had the pleasure of being a panelist in a session on the proposal for an Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the new gTLD program. I want to briefly reiterate my view on the EOI.
In computer science I learned that every problem could be “solved’ by adding a level of indirection - always with a cost of processing time and overhead. In ICANN I have learned that there are those who...
2 tags
Is Draft Applicant Guidebook (4) the Final...
Heard in a crowded room:
- We are 3 months away from a final draft application guidebook!
- Who says it will final? We have head that before.
- We need for it to be the final applicant guidebook.
So what would stop it from being the final, really final?
Substantive comments of course.
But there will always be substantive comments - until the end of time, there will be substantive comments....
3 tags
Secret Board Briefings a Method of ICANN Capture
While in a meeting with Board members, a member of my Stakeholder group had an opportunity to read part of one page of the Policy Staff’s briefing report to the Board from across the table (some of us read documents upside down better the we read right side up.)
In this case it was all they could do to refrain themself from standing up and yelling “the staff lies.” The lies in...
February 2010
1 post
2 tags
The future is a historic artifact
This is a short tale of how a set of recommendations for the future of Internet routing could only be released once they were defined as a bit of history. It is a brief background story on RFC 5772 A Set of Possible Requirements for a Future Routing Architecture and RFC 5773 Analysis of Inter-Domain Routing Requirements and History. I had the pleasure and pain of being one of the...
January 2010
4 posts
2 tags
The coming of a new Policy VP at ICANN
I have nothing but best wishes for the ICANN Policy Group and look forward to meeting David Olive, the new leader of this vital service group. I know no one has asked me, (why would they?) but I have a few recommendations for the new VP:
Make service within the bottom-up philosophy of multistakeholder organization your guiding light.
Work with the volunteer corps as if they were...
5 tags
Does the subject of Vertical Integration require a...
For the last several months people in and around the GNSO have been discussing Vertical Integration and its cousins; joint marketing, cross/joint ownership, registrars owning registries, registrars selling the names of affiliated registries, etc. This discussion has been full of claims and of counter claims of possible and expected harm, or advantages, to ICANN’s 3Rs - Registrants,...
4 tags
Will the quest for openness at ICANN persist?
Over the last few months, ICANN has lost some amazing people and, I am afraid, the champions of openness. With Maria Farrell’s departure last week I realized what those of us who care about open communications at ICANN have lost a lot. In losing Paul Levins, Kieren McCarthy, and Maria Farrell we lost a team that was dedicated to doing the right thing and fostering communications among the...
4 tags
ICANN - Expression of Interest for new gTLDs, are...
At the Seoul meeting of ICANN a few prospective new gTLD applicants petitioned the ICANN Board for a means to get around the forever delayed new gTLD process with an invention that is being called Expression of Interest (EOI). From their perspective, I can see why this would be advantageous to their business plans and I cannot blame them for trying - if you have the money why not try to use it...
December 2009
1 post
5 tags
On ICANN and the Policy Staff yet again:
I thought my days of frustration with the ICANN Policy Staff as a controlling group as opposed to a supporting group where at an end when my term as chair of the GNSO council ended.
Then I got involved in some of the GNSO ‘improvement’ committees and some of the work teams.
Then I got involved as a member of the Executive Committee of the new Non Commercial Stakeholder Group.
And...
October 2009
1 post
4 tags
A lovely day in Cropredy
(Not all blogs are about politics and I am not always grumpy). I loved this place and noticed I was happy there. Something that doesn’t happen all that often, but is wonderful when it does.
It was not only the good ale (I drank Adnams Broadside), the good food, the good music and especially the good companionship, there was something about the atmosphere in the town and at Brasenose...
September 2009
7 posts
Post JPA - tempered happiness
The Affirmation gladdens me. The Affirmation worries me. The Affirmation makes me wonder what is next.
I am of course referring to the Affirmation of Commitments between the United States Department of Commerce (DoC) and ICANN. In the respect that the US is loosening its grip on ICANN a little, this is a good thing. Symbolically, of course it is gigantic - ICANN no longer sends its reviews...
Civility, the new PC
I try to be PC. I try to be civil. But I don’t believe in either. In fact I think the requirement to be either PC or civil, which is becoming more and more a hallmark of US interactions, is dangerous and a really bad idea. And it is an idea that is taking grip of ICANN.
If your comments make someone uncomfortable, they aren’t civil.
If your comments drive someone else to...
Feelings about ICANN
I get irritated at ICANN. Even angry sometimes. But was reminded yesterday of what it is like for those who loathe ICANN. I spent a few hours as an invited panelist at the ITU in Geneva and met a few people whose hatred foams. I should note these were not ITU staff, they are ok. But it was some of the ITU delegate types and some who serve them.
I had expected a techno-political meeting on a...
3 tags
Marked by the ICANN Commercial Stakeholder Group
The issue of this blog is that I was named for unethical behavior by ICANN’s Commercial Stakeholder Group, the CSG. Being as brief as possible, I want to take the complaint seriously, explore it, and decide for myself whether I think it has any validity. The reader is invited to come to their own conclusions.
On 3 September 2009 the CSG called a Point of Order during a GNSO Council...
3 tags
Conspiracies, secret agendas, ICANN and a...
A whole lot of people I talk to think that there is all sorts of skulduggery and plotting that goes inside ICANN. There are people who think that if we could but see what goes on in internal email lists the way we see what goes on in volunteer lists, we would be shocked. That if we could but see behind the ICANN curtain we would see all sorts of mean nasty stuff going on.
This may be nothing...
Freedom not Fear – Stop the Surveillance Mania -...
Passed on from the Privacy Coalition
What are you doing on this day? Please think about organizing something in your city on the same weekend. It doesn’t have to be a demonstration - last year, other groups did privacy parties, discussion events, flashmobs and more. All details for getting involved are below. Please forward this call to others also. ...
3 tags
Torture by the USA
Normally I love euphemisms. This time, I think they are part of the problem.
Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, indeed. Torture by any other name would smell just as foul. I wonder why they never created an acronym for it to make it seem less offensive still - how about EITs?
Me, I will just call it torture. And while I agree that there is a scale of lesser to greater torture, it is still...
August 2009
10 posts
4 tags
New ICANN Board of Director Appointments
When the ICANN Nomcom (ICANN’s substitute for elections) announced its new picks for the Board, GNSO, CCNSO and ALAC imagine my disappointment. Except for returning 2 women to posts they had served one term in, no women were appointed. No new women were added to the ranks of ICANN’s leadership. Only 2 women were appointed out of 9 appointments. Where is the gender balance in that? ...
7 tags
A copy of my response to the NTIA Assessment on...
(Not something newly written, but pertinent to some discussions I am currently having. And since the decision, or at least the announcement, is not yet made, I felt it worth repeating)
Response to: DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, National Telecommunications and Information Administration [Docket No. 090420688–9689–01] Assessment of the Transition of the Technical Coordination and Management of the...
2 tags
Who is responsible for ICANN stakeholder group...
One of the fallacies gaining currency in ICANN is that the restructuring and thus the formation of stakeholder groups is a top-down activity and thus the Board and ICANN Policy Staff have a right to command the constituencies and the stakeholders on what they may and may not do.
As I said this is a fallacy. A dangerous fallacy that risks tearing and twisting the fabric of ICANN at a time when it...
3 tags
The battle between ALAC and the NCUC
What is the difference between NCUC and ALAC anyway?
Why do we need both the NCUC and ALAC?
Would it be better if we combined them?
Many people, including some on the Board have asked these and similar questions. And the fact that people, including those in the leadership, do not understand the place of each of these critical organizations in the structure of ICANN has been the source of...
4 tags
With much respect for Scottish Justice Minister...
“Our justice system demands that judgment be imposed but compassion be available. Our beliefs dictate that justice be served, but mercy be shown. Compassion and mercy are about upholding the beliefs that we seek to live by, remaining true to our values as a people. No matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated.”
A people is truly defined by the measure of their...
3 tags
Oh sigh Whole Foods, but I must boycott you!
I have been shopping at Whole Foods for a long time. Spending more for things because I liked the store and I liked its philosophy. Or a least I thought I did.
And I have been in favor, strongly in favor, of single payer health care for a long time. While I was displeased with Obama’s plan for not going far enough, it looked like it might at least be something. And I could understand...
Speaking of the ICANN Policy Staff
and ICANN Staff in general
many of them are really nice
really good people
who do their job
and try to do good
and try to do right
but some of them, some of them
do no good
and try to injure
those who do
the problem is
as long as the good
accept the bad
they are tainted too
my thanks to those who do what they can to fight the bad
i hope you survive and someday...
3 tags
Why I joined the NCUC in ICANN
It had not been my intention to join the Non Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC). In fact I had opined to quite a few people that I never ever would join the NCUC.
I had actually been planning on trying to form an Individual Professional Registrant’s Constituency (IPRC), because I think one is very badly needed. A constituency were artists, engineers, writers and other independent...
to Blog or not to Blog
i have been told that it is expected of me.
and i try to do what is expected of me.
it is what i expect of me.
so i guess i should try.