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 corporate part of ICANN, the volunteer corps and the community at large.
I do not mean to say I always agreed with them or that I did not, at various times, anger them with the things I sometimes say about ICANN. But what I did see is that even when they they were impassioned in their defense of ICANN and its actions, they were always open to dialogue and never seemed to disappear into secretive group conversations where they get snarky about the criticism (ok, maybe a little snark, but not secret snark, in your face open and funny snark). Whenever I criticized, they came out and argued to my face that I was wrong. And sometimes after listening to their arguments I agreed that I had been wrong. I will miss that. Often at ICANN the only way to find out what is going on is to take your best guess, shoot off our mouth and wait to see the responses.
I will miss Paul, Kieren and Maria.
I will especially miss Maria whom I considered my first friend among the ICANN staff - a friendship formed while eating the rubber chicken at one of those GNSO Council - Board dinners of old where we went around the table and everyone had to give their viewpoint on the very important Topic du Jour. I have been sad about the loss of her participation in the GNSO policy process every since she was subjected to the ‘purge of attrition’ of the Policy Staff initiated when the previous Director for ALAC was promoted to VP of Policy. I must admit I have never completely gotten over losing all of the Policy Staff the GNSO was working with at the time, just after I became the chair of the council. And while I really like and appreciate many of those who have since joined, I still mourn the treatment the previous group was subjected to. Maria’s leaving has reminded me and it still makes me sad.
Now that the corporate affairs staff, of which she was a member, has also disappeared I will miss her even more. Too bad, so sad, what the volunteers think of the staff is irrelevant - we are not consulted in their reviews or when they are hired or promoted or fired or even when ‘gently’ nudged out the door - no matter how much we may rely on them or value their work it just does not matter. Maria’s departure has made me think of that again too - because while this may not be an intentional purge, the effect is the same and we have lost three good people we should not have lost.
Back to openness, Kieren did a lot to foster openness in a closed community. But Kieren is gone and has been replaced by Nick Aston-Hart, a member of the Policy Staff I so often use this blog to whinge about. Another Director for ALAC has been promoted, should I be worried? Anyone looking at ICANN would assume that ALAC is its most successful branch: just see how well its Directors do after a few years on the job. I can only assume that Nick has been promoted for his achievements with the ALAC and At-Large and his great success in helping to enhance communication between the At-Large community and the Non-Commercial community.
I must say I hardly know him and don’t feel I have ever had a real person to person conversation with him, though I have spoken to him on many occasions. But the point is not whether I know Nick, or trust him, or think that he has had a significant role in bringing the At-Large/ALAC and the NCSG to their their current condition. The point is my concern about whether Nick will follow in Kieren’s example and will strive to create opportunities for open and honest communications among all members of the ICANN community, or not. In the Policy Staff under the Policy Tzarina, openness and communication among groups has never seemed the order of the day; working with them is the epitome of working with a black box, with every report being a secret report. Of course I can’t tell whether Nick is one who has just been following orders or if he was following the beat of his own drummer. I guess his performance in the new job will give us the opportunity to find out.
I will miss Paul, Kieren and Maria, and wish them every happiness.
