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ICANN, the luckiest organisation around?
Saturday, December 6. 2008
ICANN at work. At a Registrar Constituency meeting (during the November Cairo meeting), Board members, Councillors and community representatives interact and contribute to ICANN's policy development. All are volunteers, putting substantial amounts of time and effort into the ICANN process. Photo SVG.
When I got to Cairo last month for the ICANN meeting, I had just been elected to the GNSO Council. Walking into the venue hotel, I bumped into one of my friends on the ICANN staff. I suppose I was expecting some kind of congratulations. I got a weary "you really are deranged!" instead.
It's a reaction that I didn't understand at the time. I looked at being on the Council as an exciting opportunity to be at the heart of the policy development process going on in my industry, and I still do. Policies like the new gTLD program stem from the GNSO and ICANN's other Supporting Organisations (SO). So Council members get to be involved in defining tomorrow's Internet. That's something that I found really thrilling.
But since taking my position on the Council after the close of the Cairo meeting, I've also discovered the other side of the coin. Council members must brave a constant deluge of papers, reports, ICANN updates and telephone meetings (3, sometimes 4 2-hour meetings a week). They must keep themselves up to speed with everything that's happening in the ICANN world, including of course topics that don't fall directly under the banner of their own Supporting Organisation. They must report to their individual constituencies, the Registrar Constituency in my case, to make sure the people they are elected to represent know exactly what's going on at SO level.
It's pretty much a full-time job and in the few short weeks I've been doing it, I've gained a whole new respect for people like Avri Doria and Chuck Gomes, respectively GNSO chair and vice-chair, or my predecessor Tom Keller, who spent 5 whole years as the RC's European region rep on the GNSO Council. Wow. Only now that I'm on the Council do I fully understand the amount of time and effort they and all the others constantly put it to make ICANN work.
And it's all done for free. Councillors, Board members… they are all volunteers helping ICANN function. In my mind, that makes ICANN one of the luckiest organisations around. However, I wonder how long it can last. How long can the allure of being part of it all outweigh the personal and financial commitment people make to do so?
I couldn't help but think this again as I read through ICANN's latest call for "candidates to assist in the organization's technical and policy coordination role" as its Nominating Committee (who's 23 members are also all volunteers by the way) once again looks to fill key ICANN positions. Read the call and it all sounds very exciting. I'm not disputing that fact. Exciting it is. But it also means investing so much time that could be spent elsewhere (serving their own companies or projects for example), that I also have to wonder if people don't have to be somewhat deranged to want to answer the NomCom's call.
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Perhaps you have not read my blog entry http://blog.veni.com/?p=59
Thanks Veni,
I had actually read your post a while back, but I think it's very useful to have that reminder today. It helps put this discussion in the context of the simply incredible amount of selfless dedication that ICANN asks of its Board members. Since becoming a GNSO councillor, I have gained a much better understanding of what is required of the people involved in ICANN's decision-making bodies, and I know that the higher you go the more that workload increases. Your numbers highlight that very clearly.
Thanks,
Stéphane
I had actually read your post a while back, but I think it's very useful to have that reminder today. It helps put this discussion in the context of the simply incredible amount of selfless dedication that ICANN asks of its Board members. Since becoming a GNSO councillor, I have gained a much better understanding of what is required of the people involved in ICANN's decision-making bodies, and I know that the higher you go the more that workload increases. Your numbers highlight that very clearly.
Thanks,
Stéphane
