Speaking of the ALOC, it was interesting to see who actually turned out. As you may or may not know, ICANN is in the midst of choosing a replacement for Stuart Lynn. The Amsterdam meeting was used as an opportunity by the selection committee to interview a number of these candidates face to face. While this meeting didn't turn into a forum for presidential campaigns, it was an opportunity for these candidates to get in front of the community and hear exactly what is in the hearts and minds of those in attendance. There was much speculation as to who the committee had looked at, who they were still considering and who still had a chance, but it isn't clear who all the candidates currently are - understandable I suppose. Anyways, about the ALOC. If I was in the running (as one brief rumor had me ;) I certainly would have capitalized on the fact that there was a decent turn-out and tried to "get with" as many stakeholders as possible to ensure that they knew who I was and I knew what was important to them. So what does this have to do with the At-large Organizing Committee meeting? Only one of the candidates turn up to check things out - Keith Teare. I very much appreciated the fact that he took the time out to figure out where things are and where they are going. If this is any indication of how he might approach the job of ICANN CEO, then he's got my vote - if I had one ;)
Anyways, I still haven't summarized my notes from the meeting as I've threatened to do continuously for the past three days. I will get to them, I promise ;) In the last twenty four hours my temperature has gone from normal to 102.1 F. and back again. I wasn't really thinking about much coherently yesterday. Now, I'm simply going to worry about getting to work.
Lastly, if you haven't noticed, the DNSO is no more and along with it, the GA. The DNSO has been replaced by the GNSO, but there is no parallel structure that replaces the cross-constituency function of the GA. Thomas clarifies this in a post to the GA mailing list earlier today and formally steps down as chair of the GA.
And with that, I leave you with Mark Twain's thoughts on Reform.
"For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g j" anomali wonse and for all.
Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld."
- Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), "A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling"