ICANN São Paulo meeting site

This is the first time I've had to participate via remote tools to the ICANN meeting.
The webcast hasn't been great - audio hasn't been good, but at least I got to see what was going on.
ALAC meetings has excellent remote participation for the 2 members who were absent owing to family illnesses (me and Jean Polly) as well as some memebrs who had to leave early (Erick). We got a webcam view, and skype audio and a phone link were options for participation. A Skype chat posted on the screen in the room allowed us to request speaking time remotely.
It worked so well that I was even able to run for Chair of the Committee remotely. I didn't win (barely), but I think that the discussion was very helpful to the future functioning of the ALAC, and I congratulate Annette Muelhberg, the returning Chair of ALAC. Also our other positions - congrats to all the volunteers.

Last night - late - we got talking about what clothes we had brought with us. Some had travelled light. Others had more than they could possibly wear. Of particular interest was shoes. At the risk of reinforcing a stereotype, it seemed that in a straw poll of about 9, none of the men had more than 3 pairs and the women had between 5 and 9 (although one person bought 2 pairs here which led to a debate about if they should be included). The person who had 9 - a well known ICANN identity whom we will call Athena (not her real name), turns out to be a symbol, but more of that later.

As this 27th ICANN meeting races to a close, there is no doubt in my mind that we are improving rapidly in the way these meetings run and their usefulness . I am aware that this is a little self-serving as I am an ICANN employee. It's happening because we are responding to excellent suggestions from the community. What's my evidence? This site for one. We did this quickly and placed our trust in Kieren McCarthy and he delivered big time. In addition to improving remote participation, the blogs, the comments and chat rooms have seen ICANN staff appearing on an official ICANN site providing personal perspectives that have at once humanised them, made them more accessible and dare I say it a bit more transparent.

Commandatuba 1 & 2

This forum will provide an overview of current issues facing the Caribbean. Participants and presenters will also hold a dialogue on priorities vis-

In reflecting on why the ICANN community often seems so slow in making progress on policy issues, I

During a meeting yesterday, I heard one of the most profound things I have ever heard at an ICANN meeting.

In a discussion, representatives from New Zealand, the host country of our meeting in March of this year, told of the substantial benefits to their country that came from hosting an ICANN meeting. They extolled that the meeting had resulted from bringing a high profile Internet related event to the country, including a tantalising conclusion.

Of all the delicious chocolate in the world, why does the Hotel Transamerica stock their mini bars with Hershey's?

I have found a strange bug in this site's RSS feed where if you make a change to it and then do a refresh, it doesn't run blog posts according to date or time but website.

So what? you ask. Well, um, the result has been that it has listed my own blog posts in place of everyone else's. Thankfully Susan Crawford has posted something this evening which gives her the top spot, but can ICANN bloggers do me a favour and post something - anything - tomorrow morning to save me from self-aggrandisement.

Kieren

The Nominating Committee of ICANN decides who will take the most important posts in the organisation.

It is also the most secretive organisation I believe I have ever come across. I know more about MI5, the KGB and Mossad than I do about the NomCom. Which is very odd as I personally know a number of people actually on the NomCom.

At 8.30am tomorrow morning, chair of the NomCom, George Sadowky will give a presentation about this year's process, you can see it now here (Powerpoint). I have alot of respect for Mr Sadowsky but reading the presentation you would think that the whole process had been smooth and open and understood.

For people interested in Whois, the Sao Paulo meeting is a pretty important opportunity for influence. Two Whois items were posted for public comments on the ICANN website, and we took comments on them both during the GNSO public forum on Monday.(chatroom discussion here) The good news is you don't have to be here to take part. Anyone can comment on both topics below until January 15th, by clicking through the title links.

I am sitting in the "Meeting on meetings", a workshop convened by Susan Crawford - one of our ICANN Board members, which is discussing how to improve the way ICANN meetings are held.

ICANN meetings are unwieldy, complex, demanding and tiring; and yet hugely constructive places to get a great deal done throughout the days (and nights). Work begins each day with an alarm clock at 6am in the morning, and you'll rarely get back to bed before 1am in the morning. The question is: how do you make them better, reduce the exhaustion factor, and eke out the most from the precious few days when everyone is in the one place?