ICANN 40 Wrap-up #ICANN @ncuc @InternetSociety

ISOC-NY members actively participated in ICANN’s 40th meeting, just held in San Francisco. Since we are both a member of the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) of the GNSO, and also an At-Large Structure in the North American Regional Organization (NARALO) we had plenty to keep us busy. The NCUC held a very good one-day conference on the prior Friday which really helped bring the issues into focus, and enable us hit the ground running. On the Sunday some chapter members remotely attended the ISOC Chapters and Members meeting thanks to Sabrina and the ISOC Chapters webcast team. geat to see so many Chapters represented and our new COO Walda Roseman! On the Monday we helped organize the NARALO Showcase at which Vint Cerf spoke – one of the most popular events of the meeting, well lubricated by refreshments courtesy of a generous sponsor (Google). On the Tuesday the NCUC and At-Large got together to mount a separate Internet Town Hall event to discuss emerging issues which also went well. Of course the main substance of the week was the pulling to bits of the Government Advisory Committee’s Scorecard. Gratifying progress was made, and in particular, common ground between At-Large and the GAC was established – so much so that it was agreed there will be joint discussions at the Singapore meeting in June – when, incidentally, the ICANN Board promised that the new GTLD process will absolutely be finalized. The other big issue was the board’s vote on the long delayed .xxx sponsored top level domain. ISOC-NY member George Sadowsky forcefully argued the opposing position, suggesting that a yes vote would only serve to tarnish ICANN’s reputation in the eyes of the world. However, the view that ICANN had to honor its own process – which had accepted .xxx back in 2005 – prevailed, and the Board voted to approve. An illustrated audio of the discussion is here or below: