Re: [ga] Veni, Vidi, Wiki
Let's not be to harsh. Being on ICANN's board is rather a difficult act of juggling. When I was on the board I found myself in a rather strange position - although I could speak for myself I could not speak for the corporation. This meant that I had to be very careful to make it clear that I was offering *my* opinion and *my* perspective and *my* intention. And in my online "diary" of what I had done on the board I was careful to try to indicate what I had done and not what others had said or opined. I felt quite it rather odd to be in a position in which I was called upon to try to articulate the internet needs and goals of nearly 400,000,000 people. Electronic discussion is a very dangerous art - a few slips of the keyboard and people get angry or read things into text that were not intended. And once people start to get these kinds of perceptions, it is very hard to bring the discussion back into focus. Direct face-to-face talks are far less likely to go awry. And we speak many different languages. We need to always remember that not all of us use English with perfection, so we ought to always beware that our words might be misunderstood, or that the connotations might be rather different. That's why these e-mail discussions need to be taken slowly, with lots of interaction to ensure that we really understand one another. That can be frustrating, and people may feel as if they are being attacked when it is merely an attempt to clarify a point. So it is important to be gentle. These kinds of things are hard - I know that I violate these precepts far too often. What we really need is for there to be ICANN meetings that have absolutely no business content - the sole purpose should be for us to get together, meet face-to-face, share meals and good wine (for those who drink alcohol), and otherwise get to know the people behind the email addresses. (We'd probably discover that we somehow managed to accomplish a lot of business without really trying.) --karl--
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