[governance] ICANN and the IGF

Vittorio Bertola vb at bertola.eu
Mon Nov 19 05:24:34 EST 2007


This thread is now going down the usual path of "I did that first" and 
"seven years ago you said that...". Anyway:

Veni Markovski ha scritto:
> ICANN has been trying to be part of the solution (because the WSIS 
> created a problem, and it required a solution, or else one would be left 
> in the landscape) since 2003, and I think it's not fair of you to state 
> something like "stupid approach" by "ICANN leadership", and make 
> statement that "they were scared" of a discussion. You probably mistake 
> this with the lack of desire to be proactive, and engage in a way you 
> thought correct? Plus, at some point you were also part of this 
> "leadership", so I guess you don't mean you were "stupid"?

You're the second person who takes that adjective personally, so let me 
note that it is the approach which was stupid, not the people who 
devised it. It happens every day to every intelligent person to take 
stupid decisions, especially ones that reveal their 
counterproductiveness only in hindsight (the intelligent people are not 
those who do not take stupid decisions, but those who do not take twice 
the same stupid decision). I take your implicit transfer of the 
adjective from the strategy to the people as a sign that people like you 
and Alex are so committed to ICANN that they completely identify 
themselves with the organization. Unfortunately, this also explains why 
it was often so difficult for ICANN to accept views that were even 
slightly different from the ones of their leaders.

However, I must note that - according to my ten months of experience 
with the Board - the situation in the Board seems to be much different, 
and more open to interaction. One would only hope that that could 
eventually transfer to the staff dealing with the IGF.

Of course, you are also free to think that the defensive strategy was 
clever and it would have been stupid to engage proactively, we do not 
need to agree on that. I hope that I am allowed to express a different 
opinion without being aggressively attacked in public, though that's 
exactly what happens each and every time.

And pardon me if I insist, but your intervention managed to focus the 
discussion exactly on the part of my considerations which was critical 
of ICANN, rather than on the part that was favourable to it. Nice 
communications strategy, again.
-- 
vb.                   Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu   <--------
-------->  finally with a new website at http://bertola.eu/  <--------
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