One of the sessions which I attended at Houston was on the academic study of bullying in the workplace. Bullying of course is wider than just a workplace issue, and regrettably the freedom of speech commonly found across the web has an unpleasant side-effect of bullying, which can be very difficult to control. Part of the job of an ombudsman is to intervene in bullying and to help those who are victims, but also ensure that those who inflict the bullying are aware of the harm they are doing. Mediation is not always the answer, because the difficulty in dealing with the disparity of power between the parties, and the real fear experienced by the victims make mediation an uncertain and possibly unsafe answer. I would like to say that there is a correct way of dealing with this but unfortunately the academic study, and my experience do not provide ready answers. A recent article in New Zealand Lawyer, http://www.nzlawyermagazine.co.nz/CurrentIssue/Issue183/183F6/tabid/4253/Default.aspx identifies various types of bullying and techniques for dealing with this. I would hope that if anyone in the ICANN community feels that there has been bullying of any of the sorts described, or other methods, can contact me, knowing that their complaint will be confidential and treated impartially.
Since posting this, I read more in a local paper which underlines the need for protection-see this article on Cyber Bullying and a link to suicide http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10803980