At the San Juan meeting, ICANN, and its Global Partnerships team, put together a unique ‘Fellows' program. This program was managed by the ICANN Liasion for Canada and the Caribbean, Jacob Malthouse. http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-26jun07.htm
This week I had the pleasure of being invitied to speak to the Fellows, and I have included the comments of one of the fellows below:
We also heard from Frank, ICANN's first Ombudsman, who explained his position as a very interesting and important job indeed. Any Internet user with a complaint against ICANN can bring it to him, and he will actually read the complaint and do everything in his power to resolve it, in many cases, even when it is not really an ICANN issue. He sees his role as that of reducing controversy, and does not represent “right” or “wrong” as much as the fairness of the issue at hand. He has handled 2500 cases single-handedly so far. My personal perception was that he takes a concrete, practical, low cost look at solving problems. If results are not satisfactory, a complaintant can still go to the ICANN board, and to a third process which has not yet been necessary. It seems to me that he may be one of the “unsung heroes” of this process.