XXXus interruptus
December 1st, 2005“News” from ICANN:
.ZZZ?
ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee (GAC), widely regarded as a grouping of some of the world’s least talented bureaucrats, extracted a promise from ICANN Chief Evangelist Vint Cerf to put off consideration of .XXX until ICANN’s March 2006 meeting in Wellington, NZ. Government reps, some of whom had at one time backed .XXX as proof of their concern for the welfare of the people, now, as implementation seems imminent, want more time to block study the new domain in between lessons on how to read email.
Lots of wind, no sails
CFIT (pronounced “See Fit”) has distributed pamphlets, manned (womaned actually) booths and even sponsored the ICANN conference tote bag in an effort to block the proposed contract that would give VeriSign a (very) longtime hold on .com and end those pesky price controls on domain names.
This grand effort was deflated, for the moment at least, as the two lawsuits against ICANN asking for a preliminary injunction were (temporarily) dismissed because ICANN voted not to consider the contract until their March meeting — hence, nothing to injuct against. A temporary respite for ICANN and another three months for sounding and furying.
Giggle Test
A wag who wishes to remain anonymous has invented a test to see if someone is attending the ICANN conference for the first time. Ask them to say “ICANN is committed to openness and transparency” three times without cracking up. In field tests, no veteran has yet been able even to get through the test, let alone do so without guffaws, and in one case, tears.
What year is it anyway?
All for now — I’m off to what promises to be another entertaining official dinner. I’m going to try out a fine idea from Kieren McCarthy: pull out quotes from ICANN meetings past and ask people to identify which year it comes from. This, like the Giggle Test, is almost impossible to win. The respite between meetings is just enough to let people forget they already said that once (or twice, or three times)….
