Today is the first official day of ICANN 44. In fact many of us arrived over the weekend, and my day of work started properly on Sunday with a presentation to the newcomers, on Ombudsman 101. This is a presentation which I give to all new staff members of ICANN, and modified to present to the newcomers session on Sunday at an ICANN meeting. There were a number of very thoughtful questions following the presentation, including the very interesting topic of whether I could look at issues of access to the Internet where a country imposes restrictions. I have not had such a complaint, so I have not been able to consider the issue of jurisdiction. It would have to be along the lines that there was unfairness preventing someone from participating in ICANN because of the censorship restrictions.
Today began with the official introduction of our new CEO Fadi Chehade. He spoke to the general meeting in a very inspirational address, telling us about his humble beginnings as an onion cutter when he first arrived in the United States, as a non-English speaker. His eloquence and fluency demonstrate he has travelled a long way since those days. He emphasised his desire for inclusiveness, transparency and consensus. I look forward to the particular strengths which he can bring, and the concept of consensus for decision making particularly appealed to me. Rod Beckstrom also gave a thoughtful speech about his term in office, expressing his full support for his successor. He summarised his achievements, and in particular reaching out to the Chinese Internet community, a most important part of his term as CEO. I know as ombudsman I receive very few referrals from China, but of course as Rod mentioned, they have 25% of the world Internet users. So hopefully that means things are well in China, but I suspect really means I need to do more work there.
One of the most interesting features of my job is meeting people from all over the world. For example, I have met impressive individuals from Armenia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldavia as well as a group of friends from the Pacific Islands. So I am constantly challenged by new cultural ideas and approaches.
As the meeting proceeds no doubt there will be debate over a number of issues including the new gTLDs program. I would urge anyone who feels affected by some aspect of this to consult with me, and of course I am available in my office at the Hilton as well as through the complaint system on my website.