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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Hi Evan and thanks for
your response. I actually do not think ICANN will come out of
this with the same meeting scenario -- 3 public international
gatherings somewhere in the world every year. I am pushing for
more work to be done at the regional/local level. Use some of
the approx. 2 1/2M US$ saved with each virtual meeting to bring
ICANN's multistakeholder model to end users where they live.
More people can participate that way -- but first they have to
know about it. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">CIRA (and ISOC Canada)
is running the Canadian Internet Governance Forum each year
(this year virtual in the fall) -- which does bring these
internet governance discussions closer to home. But that is a
discussion platform. ICANN actually has a decision-making role
-- as you say, the PIR controversy was a good example of how the
the future can evolve in the favour of public interest but it
still takes a huge effort. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"></font>Marita<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/29/2020 4:09 AM, Evan Leibovitch
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAMguqh1ysD3Eae1ZWzHJPwLQjnoLOcN126vo=5Y9FkjNAXbNBQ@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 at 20:57, Marita Moll <<a
href="mailto:mmoll@ca.inter.net" moz-do-not-send="true">mmoll@ca.inter.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Hello advisors. Hope you
are all well and managing your way through this <span
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"></span>co-vid
crisis. I have just finished a week of middle of the night <span
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"></span>meetings
at virtual ICANN68 -- Kuala Lumpar time zone. This is the <span
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)">
</span>future of international meetings for some time to
come, I'm afraid. It <span class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"></span>is
simply too dangerous to have such gatherings until a
reliable vaccine <span class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"></span>is
found.<br>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">As someone who attended ICANN meetings
for more than a decade, let me offer a contrarian view --
that having its meetings online is actually the best thing
that could happen for the public interest.<br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">A virtual meeting does not require
ICANN's At-Large and other public-interest stakeholders to
beg for the funding that enables us to participate. It truly
does enable (almost) anyone to participate, anyone to listen
in from their home. And while not everyone has or can afford
high-speed Internet, access to the meetings is now orders of
magnitude less expensive than airfare to Malaysia.</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">Further, this kind of access becomes a
great equalizer. You and I have the same access to the ear
of ICANN leadership as the industry lobbyists. Expense
accounts to pay for after-meeting drinks at the bar to push
industry interests (where far too many of ICANN process and
administrative decisions are made) don't vanish but are far
harder to accomplish.</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">Consider that ICANN just made perhaps
its biggest decision of the decade (from the perspective of
public interest) this year when it rejected the application
to turn the .ORG registry to a for-profit owned by hedge
funds. It didn't need lots of in-person meetings to do the
right thing, arguably having those would have enabled the
vested interests to put more pressure on ICANN to let it
pass.<br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">If the ICANN At-Large Advisory
Committee was offered a decent R&D budget, and the
ability to actually survey the public rather than just
guess at its needs -- with the tradeoff of having to
drastically reduce travel and do more virtually -- that's
a choice it should take in a heartbeat. But it won't. Too
many of its members (with the notable exception of a few
including Marita) are amateur politicians who enjoy
pretending they're the UNSC three times a year, in a
cavernous meeting room with real-time interpretation. Yes
there is the reduction of human contact, but that could be
offset in a less expensive way if At-Large held its own
global conferences OUTSIDE of regular ICANN meetings. That
way it could focus on advancing the public interest
rather than just knee-jerk responses to whatever trivial
issue ICANN wants to burn volunteer time chasing now.</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">Just my opinion.</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default">- Evan</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(11,83,148)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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