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Home From Lisbon meeting (minus baggage) and the One World Trust Report

2 April 2007
By Frank Fowlie

The ICANN Meeting at Lisbon has ended, and I have made it home.

It was really one of the best organized, run, and professional meetings I have attended at ICANN. The local hosts did a great job. The agenda was full. Our new Manager of Public Participation came up with great ideas to provide access to the remote community. There were lively and important discussions, and the Board of Directors (who seem to all be going 16 hours a day) made some tough decisions at a public board meeting. Consumer concerns over the registerfly registrar was were a constant topic of work and conversation, and ICANN continues to deal with this as an issue. The ICANN staff out in a lot of hard yards at this meeting. Big issues to develop briefs on, and long hours of work, not just on the meeting, but on their day jobs (i.e. registerfly). I continue to be impressed with the very dedicated group of people.

It has been especially interesting to monitor the interactions between registrants on the ICANN blog as they share experiences, and then startegies for moving domain names away from registerfly. Paul Levins has been busy responding to each post, and keeping the community updated.

I had several one on one, and a large group meeting with the At Large Advisory Committee.

On an overview of transparency and accountability, ICANN released the the One World Trust report. http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-4-29mar07.htm “The report says that overall ICANN is a very transparent organisation, noting that it shares a large quantity of information through its website, probably more than any other global organisation.”

The report references the Office of the Ombudsman in several places, and devotes the following summary to the Office:

7.2 Ombudsman

103. The Ombudsman plays an important role within ICANN as an informal

alternative dispute resolution mechanism. Since its formation, it has reduced the

number of complaints handled through the formal complaint channels of the

Reconsideration Committee. As the Ombudsman’s office continues to reach out to

the community and raises awareness of the function within the ICANN community,

there is the distinct possibility that the number of complaints it has to handle will

increase. The office’s user group is the entire Internet community, yet it is currently

staffed by a single full time Ombudsman and an adjunct Ombudsman that provides

holiday cover. To ensure the continued effectiveness of the office, ICANN should

continue to support the Ombudsman through the adjunct Ombudsman and also

consider recruiting an additional full time member staff to provide administrative

support to the office.

Recommendation 4.3: ICANN should consider strengthening the capacity of the

Ombudsman’s office by recruiting full time administrative support for the

Ombudsman.

So, we were a party of four that checked 8 bags in for travel back to Canada. On the flight from Heathrow to Montreal I was handed a note from the cabin crew that said that my bags liked Heathrow so much, that they decided to stay for an extra day or two. Apparently all of other bags in our party decided that they did want to make it home with their owners. Now, I am just not sure how you hive off 25 per cent of bags checked in at the same instant, or why they had to belong to the same traveler. Wonder if this airline has ever thought how it could improve service and relationships by having a passenger Ombudsman?

Authors

Frank Fowlie