By Nick Patience
After the various constituency groups had reported their progress to the first day of the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) meeting yesterday in Berlin, the floor was thrown open to anyone wishing to comment on the issues surrounding the domain name supporting organization (DNSO). The DNSO will comprise representatives from seven constituency groups and will advise the ICANN board on domain name policy.
The too-rapid development of ICANN was a common criticism throughout the open session, but there was also a fair amount of concern that the meeting was getting too bogged down in its own processes instead of developing policy. In other words the usual polarity of opinions that have been expressed at internet policy meetings over the years.
At the end of the DNSO general assembly, chair Dennis Jennings found it difficult to sum up the mood of the meeting beyond that fact that was a fair amount o disagreement on most issues. But he pointed out that the purpose of the meeting was to air the issues, not make decisions. That’s the job of the board of ICANN, which meets in closed session tomorrow and will take these comments and others into consideration.
There was general agreement, however to ask the board to consider the DNSO’s issues early on its meeting and to reconvene another DNSO meeting tomorrow morning to consider its decisions, which it will release early for the purpose. However, it was pointed out that many were leaving Berlin after today’s sessions, as there was no point in hanging around for what is a closed board meeting, so we’re not sure how well attended the follow-on meeting will actually be.
