Re: [ga] Soccer Tournament in Mar del Plata

[Sotiris Sotiropoulos <sotiris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael et al.,

My comments inline below.

Michael D. Palage wrote:

> Sotiris:
>
> Can I offer another perspective of this proposed soccer tournament. Knowing
> that this good faith effort on my behalf has the potential to set off a
> flood of email flames, let me start off with the following statement. I am
> not a clueless ICANN director that believes ICANN's core mission has now
> been expanded to include promoting regional soccer tournaments. 

Well, that is a relief.

> However, as
> discussed below I believe there is some potential benefit to Erick's efforts
> if you just take a minute to look at it from a different perspective.
>
> Although we have never had the opportunity to sit down and talk in person, I
> was truly impressed by your efforts during the ICANN regional meeting in
> Montreal where you stood up during the open session and read into the record
> on behalf of third parties their comments. I thought this was a personal
> touch that provided a little more involvement then Vint just reading an
> email submission into the record.

Thank you for your kind words.  I, too, would like to meet with you 
someday.  Perhaps it will be Vancouver, we'll see...

> As you are aware from your attendance during the Montreal meeting, there is
> a lot of off-line socializing that takes place during these events, ranging
> from events such as the host reception open to all attendees, to closed
> events such as those hosted by the registries primarily for the benefit of
> the registrars. In addition to these scheduled formal events there are also
> numerous informal/unscheduled meetings that take place in the lobby of the
> hotel or the bars and restaurants of the local establishments. Unfortunately
> these dynamics are a part of an ICANN meeting that cannot be captured via a
> web cast. This social interaction over the years has provided me with the
> opportunity to understand different perspectives that I would otherwise not
> have had.

I will grant as much.  There is a social element to ICANN meetings that 
must be taken into account, no argument there.

> I think providing attendees the opportunity to interact on a soccer field,
> participating in one of the world's most popular sports, is a nice
> alternative to people sitting at the hotel bar drinking and smoking. Perhaps
> I am a little bias in this opinion, as I played soccer for seven years when
> I was younger and this past fall I coached my son's soccer team which was a
> nice break from the daily DNS grind.

Hey Michael, I love soccer too! But isn't an ICANN meeting supposed to 
be exactly about the daily DNS grind?  Or is it just a "nice break from 
the daily DNS grind"?  All the schmoozing, and closed or open 
receptions; all the meetings, bar nights and other happenings have 
really only one object: DNS and related technologies bartering at one 
level or another. Now, as you well know, since the ICANN AtLarge 
election in 2000, the Atlarge Interest -in the very much public resource 
that the Internet has become- has been consistently diminished to the 
point of actual (if not official) inefficacy and irrelevance.  It's 
virtually an insult to those  of us who have the ability, creativity, 
and interest to participate meaningfully to the mission of ICANN, to 
think that the AtLarge structure has now been relegated to the role of 
soccer tourney organizers.

> Please note ICANN's limited role in this proposed event. A stakeholder asked
> ICANN for assistance in disseminating information about this event to make
> it possible.  By way of example, consider the effort that the Registrar
> Constituency undertook in Cape Town. Traditionally, the registrar
> constituency has only met for a single day during the previous regional
> meetings. In Cape Town, the registrar constituency asked ICANN for a room so
> that they could hold meetings over a two day period. During this additional
> day, one of the supplemental sessions was on deletes, see
> http://www.icann.org/meetings/capetown/icann-domainnames-workshop-01dec04.ht
> m. This session was open to all, and there were some papers submitted by
> individuals users Danny Younger and Richard Henderson.

Methinks the registrar constituency's initiative was far more 
appropriate to its raison d'etre, than the ALAC sponsored soccer 
tournament.  Michael, how does a soccer tourney serve the purpose of the 
AtLarge Interest, physical health benefits aside?  Furthermore, can you 
point out anything tangible that the ALAC has accomplished which 
increased user participation/interest in ICANN?

> I guess what I am trying to say is that part of ICANN's core mission from my
> perspective is helping people self organize and create an environment where
> they can interact and work together. Since stepping down as the Chair of the
> Registrar almost two years ago, I have had the benefit of attending all of
> the various GNSO constituency meetings during the ICANN regional meetings.
> Erick is active participant within the Non-Commercial Constituency and I
> believe has made some valuable contributions.

I can't say as much.  I'm not really up to speed on Erick's 
contributions. Is there anything in writing that I can consider?  Some 
policy recommendation(s)?  Something technical?  Anything at all?

> In closing, I view Erick's efforts to organize this soccer tournament in a
> similar light as your efforts in Montreal to provide people with a voice
> during the public forum. Although you may not find his efforts particularly
> beneficial, I think criticizing him is not exactly helpful and only
> undermines the positive efforts that people like yourself, Danny Younger,
> Richard Henderson and others have made.

Danny, Richard, myself and others have stayed on-topic and relevant... 
*and* our efforts are documented as a matter of public record for anyone 
to look up.  Please allow me to see what you see in Mr. Ahon's 
contributions by pointing out some readily available resources that I 
may consider.

> Best regards,
>
> Michael D. Palage
>
> P.S. I hope that with ICANN having their 2005 annual meeting in Vancouver
> you might be able to attend and offer a similar contribution as you did in
> Montreal, plus provide us with the opportunity to sit down in person and
> talk.

I look forward to it.

Be Well,

Sotiris Sotiropoulos

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