The ICANN Board met yesterday and reconfirmed its commitment to the 37th international ICANN meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi from March 7 to 12.
Security concerns expressed by some participants in recent weeks combined with a recent terrorist alert on the convention center where the meeting is to be held have contributed to many of the usual attendees deciding not to come.
That includes whole groups, such as the GNSO's intellectual property constituency (IPC) or the gTLD registries. The IPC and the registries are even planning alternative meetings in "safer" locations such as New York during the Nairobi meeting week. Sensibly, the Board has said that no funding would be available from ICANN for such meetings.
ICANN staff and the Board have been working in recent weeks to gauge the true extent of any security threat and ensure that if the meeting did go ahead, it would do so in relative safety. Various reports, both from governments, people onsite and recent visitors to Nairobi, show that the terrorist threat is actually not very credible and that the level of security on the street is no worse than at many other major cities. Touch wood… I hope no-one finds out otherwise in a couple of weeks!
But beyond the security issue (many firms were left with no choice but to bar their employees from travelling to Kenya as no insurance would cover them after the terrorist alert), the question of participation has become the thorny issue for this meeting.
The Board addressed the arguments that a meeting with such wide swaths of the ICANN community absent could not produce any significant results. They pointed out that even though some groups have said they aren't coming, other major groups have confirmed their attendance such as the ccNSO (the country code registry operators), the GAC (the governments) and the at-large community as represented by ALAC.
The Board will be in Nairobi in force (only one Board member is expected to be absent) and ICANN is increasing its commitment to ensuring the highest levels of remote participation for those who aren't physically present in Nairobi but still wish to attend.
The Kenyan government is also stepping up security yet again around the convention center and surrounding hotels.
I am going to Nairobi, and I expect it to be a very good meeting with much easier access to Staff and key members of the ICANN community due to the lower number of attendants. I also expect that the Board and Staff will be keen to make sure this meeting does produce real results and is not seen as a useless meeting. For that to be the case, key decisions, such as one on the new gTLD EOI, must be taken in Nairobi.
