No Such Weblog

Someone sent me a copy of the resolutions, and agreed that I could publish these with the changes made incorporated. Well, the discussion is going too fast to do the latter thing (in particular when you'd have to work through the discussion so far). Thus, I point you to Alexander's notes from the meeting which give some rough description of the changes. The resolutions: Vote on reconsideration requests from Russ Smith and Tony So; MoU with .MW; Evolution and Reform.

In the budget, the heading had to be changed from "2001-2002" to "2002-2003" (in order to avoid informing the SEC about substantial changes to past bookkeeping, as Vint put it jokingly). No changes to RGP. WLS: Andy introduced an amendmend to condition WLS approval on implementation on RGP. Stuart opposed, since this would concern the board's action, instead of the proposal's implementation. The amendmend was voted down. Schink wanted the PSO to check for open standards, so no competitive distortions among registrars occur; satisfied by a note in the minutes. The resolution was accepted (Andy abstaining).

Two more resolutions: There's a $6,000 reimbursement to .org applicants, and an Executive Search Committee to find Stuart's successor is formed.

The motion was read by Vint; Stuart asked for special acknowledgement of the work done by Andrew McLaughlin (and some other individual), who were not mentioned (Stuart was). Resolution accepted unanimously.

Jonathan Cohen just seems to indicate that the next meetings after Shanghai are going to happen in South America, and Africa. However, the number of meetings in 2004 is still open, and the meetings' structure will be reviewed and revised.

Update: Bret apparently had a better audio feed than I during that part. You better read his notes.

A visibly moved Vint Cerf read a resolution in memoriam Peter de Blanc. Elisabeth Porteneuve read an address on behalf of the ccTLD managers' community, in which Peter's achievements for the Internet Community were recalled. The board resolution was subsequently adopted unanimously. Those attending the meeting then expressed the community's deep respect for Peter by a minute of silence.

The board unanimously adopted resolutions to thank the local organizers, Andrew McLaughlin (adopted with standing ovations), and Karen Rose. Andrew is going to return to the Berkman Center; Karen is going to leave her position with the US Department of Commerce.

The ICANN meetings in Bucharest are over now. I hope that the notes in the items below are useful. More about what went on during the meeting is available from Bret Fausett's Bucharest.BLOG. Official minutes of some of the meetings will probably show up quite soon on the ICANN site (as far as the board meeting is concerned), on the GAC web page (as far as their communiqué is concerned), and with the DNSO (for the Names Council meeting). For some part of the meetings, there will even be professional word-by-word transcripts. Video archives for a significant part of the meetings are already available.

Reports and comments after ICANN's Bucharest meeting start coming in. For instance, Jamie Love sent out a statement which paints the meeting's outcome from his unique perspective. Quite frankly, I don't see much point in complaining that ICANN is even going so far as to remove the ability of the public to [...] have votes in public forums that have no legal power. Why vote when it's pointless and meaningless (the sentence alludes to the E&R committee's recommendations on the GA) anyway? If you read the entire message, it looks like the author is entirely frustrated with the reform process and looks for ways to change ICANN from the outside. On the other hand, Izumi Aizu has sent an interesting message to the atlarge-discuss list. He writes: I think the At-Large Advisory Committee idea is not in anyway the best or idea [...] It is a difficult situation and difficult judgment. I hope those who stand with the principle of direct representation and participation will not simply deny the other approach who still think direct representation and participation is the goal. The difference to me is not the goal, but how to reach there.

"Mainstream" net media are also taking up the ICANN topic: For instance, the San Jose Mercury News has taken up some criticism from European ccTLDs; a Reuters Story is covering the reform decisions. Monika Ermert has this story (in German) at Heise, including some remarks from board member Andy Müller-Maguhn on the reform process.

In order to stay up to date on the "press coverage", you may wish to do an occasional Google News search.

Bret says that he has the final text of the resolution on ICANN reform.