A couple of recent articles have caught my attention because they offer scathing criticism of ICANN.

The first is a long and convoluted article by Kieren McCarthy on the .JOBS debacle. Kieren has basically written a feature that only a seasoned ICANN insider can hope to understand and that's a pity, because the points he makes appear very valid. Namely that ICANN is incapable of looking at itself in the mirror and admitting when it's wrong.

The second is an op-ed that makes it clear ICANN often has no-one but itself to blame for the bad press it receives.

Take the long list ICANN directors this article points its finger at as having a stake in the new gTLD game. Anyone not well-versed with the ICANN process would certainly look with some discomfort at the fact that several industry people sit on the Board of the organisation that is approving the Internet's biggest expansion ever. And, be thankful for small mercies, author David Rowan has apparently not heard of previous ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate-Thrush's damaging move to a new gTLD firm minutes after he'd led the Board to an approval vote for the program last June. Otherwise he would have surely painted an even starker picture of ICANN…

As it stands, the picture is bleak, and yes it is one-sided. The truth is that the reason the governance model that ICANN embodies is so strong is in part because it involves industry insiders. For that read people who actually understand what they're voting on! A welcome change from traditional politician-driven governance bodies where the decision makers don't know the slightest thing about the market they're looking at.

But ICANN has not been tough enough with itself in the past, and thus left itself wide open to such attacks. Under existing ICANN rules, Dengate-Thrush did nothing wrong. But that doesn't make it right, because there's a difference between doing what you're allowed to do and doing the right thing. ICANN has since beefed up the onus on its directors to disclose potential conflicts of interests and is asking them more clearly not to benefit directly from Board decisions. It should have come sooner.

Up until now, ICANN has also made a very poor job of explaining how it works, and the benefits it brings. Instead, when it doesn't work, ICANN just gets all upset and sulks, treating critics with at best disdain, at worst outright arrogance.

And that's a pity, because its public/private sector-led governance model remains better suited to something as fast-evolving as the Internet than some sclerosis-riddled organisation who's members might sometimes value state control more than individual freedoms or public service.

ICANN's search for a replacement for current CEO Rod Beckstrom, who's contract ends in July 2011, continues. The organization has published a profile for potential candidates.

So if you're interested, read the candidate profile here, and learn more about the process here.

Did former ICANN Board Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush damage the organisation by joining a new gTLD consultancy firm as soon as he left the Board?

If calls by a US Senator for more ethics at ICANN are anything to go by, the answer may very well be a resounding yes.

Ron Wyden, a democrat representing Oregon, has sent a letter to Acting Commerce Department Secretary Rebecca Blank and NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Agency) boss Lawrence Strickling in which he warns about the possibility for favouritism the "Dengate precedent" sets.

Obviously, the IANA contract that is currently up for renewal is the US government's main mechanism for putting pressure on ICANN. "I urge you to put in place guidelines that ensure any future IANA has clear ethics rules and conflict of interest requirements in place," Wyden wrote in his letter.

The Senator's press release also talks about his "concerns about the potential for bias and unfair favoritism stemming from a revolving door between internet regulators and the multi-million dollar domain name industry they formerly regulated."

So does ICANN have an ethics problem? In my opinion, it's the way the Board works at the moment that's the real concern. 

Perhaps current research into whether the Board should be paid might help...

In June, ICANN announced the appointment of Thomas Spiller as its new Vice President for the European region.

I've never met Thomas, who is described as a "French national" in ICANN's press release, and was set to take over management of the organisation's Brussels office.

At the time, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom said that "the new position is vital for global expansion and deepening of ICANN."

That may be, but Thomas won't be taking care of the expanding and deepening. Although there has not been an official announcement (and from what I hear there won't be), I have learned that he will not be joining ICANN after all.

Why? I have no idea. But it does seem a pity for the ICANN community. It would have been great to see ICANN opening up to more Europeans…

It's not quite at News Of The World level, but expect the word "scandal" to be bandied around the ICANN community in the next few days. The news that ex Chairman of the ICANN Board Peter Dengate Thrush (PDT) has joined a new gTLD consultancy firm will no doubt cause a few teeth to grind.

In fact, just hours after it was made public, I was seeing tweets like this "Peter Dengate Thrush votes for new TLDs at #ICANN, then joins a company which sells them..." or this "A clear case of conflict of interest, it does not help #ICANN nor new TLDs."

The bitterness is understandable. PDT was in charge of the industry's regulatory body for most of the implementation phase of the new gTLD program. His drive to get it approved before his term as Chair ended (in Singapore on June 24, just 4 days after the Board approved the new gTLD program) was relentless. Getting there meant upsetting a few people who felt PDT's intransigence left no room for any views but his own.

No doubt those people will now join in a chorus of criticism and smug "oh now we understand why he was in such a hurry to get new gTLDs done!" comments.

Then ICANN CEO Paul Twomey with French minister Eric Besson at the Paris ICANN meeting in June 2008.

ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom will be in Paris next week to meet with Eric Besson, French minister for the digital economy, as part of the e-G8 summit being held over 2 days, on May 24 and 25.

Besson met with Beckstrom's predecessor, Paul Twomey, when Paris hosted an ICANN meeting in June 2008.

Besson and Beckstrom will no doubt discuss new gTLDs and the role of governments in Internet governance.

Preparing for an ICANN meeting has now become a full-time job for many participants, from ICANN Staff to the numerous volunteers that contribute to the bulk of the ICANN processes.

The preparations for one of the 3 yearly International Meetings start as soon as the previous one is over, sometimes even before that. A full meeting planning team is in operation at ICANN, but input is also required from the Supporting Organisations (SOs) and Advisory Committees (ACs) that make up the ICANN structure.

As the body responsible for setting generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) policy, the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organisation) is part of that planning. At each meeting, we work on our own agenda and strive to meet the deadlines set for its publication. We interact with the other SOs and ACs as everyone tries to fit into the increasingly busy schedule that is an ICANN meeting week.

It is as part of this preparatory work that we have learned that the GAC/Board discussions on new gTLDs that started in Brussels in February and continued at the San Francisco ICANN meeting in March are set to once again disrupt the normal business of community discussions and policy development that is the raison-d'être of an ICANN meeting.

A criticism that I often hear of ICANN is that it is a toothless body with no real ability to regulate the domain name system.

A couple of recent episodes seem to indicate that ICANN actually takes enforcing rules very seriously.

There's this letter from ICANN General John Jeffrey to .JOBS registry Employ Media. The language of the letter is totally unambiguous. ICANN feels that Employ Media has usurped the responsibility that it was given to build a TLD that would "serve the needs of the international human resource management community" in a way that instead appears to "exclusively serve the financial interests of Employ Media".

Was asking Bill Clinton to speak at ICANN San Francisco (for a reported $250,000 fee) a good idea?

For the domain name system, for the unique governance model that ICANN represents, as a spotlight for the key issues that model is currently dealing with – How to integrate governments with being taken over by them? How to spread the Internet to non-English speakers or writers? How to maintain technical stability while continuing to support the ever-increasing demand for network resources that innovation continues to drive? – the media interest generated by Clinton's visit alone probably made it worth it.

About 1,000 people heard him speak in the main ballroom at the San Francisco Westin on Union Square on Wednesday March. They thought he was enthralling enough to hear that they cheered when he walked on stage, and had given him two standing ovations by the time he left it.

As for me, well obviously in this case I can't give an unbiased opinion. When I started in the domain names industry, I never thought it would lead a small time entrepreneur from Paris like me to this. Meeting Clinton was an honor. Simple as that.

ICANN staff has just confirmed to the GNSO that the meeting initially planned for Amman, Jordan, will now take place in Singapore. The Amman meeting was cancelled due to the current uncertainty in the region.

The meeting will happen from June 19 to 24 2011.

In preparation for the March San Francisco meeting, ICANN introduced a new sponsorship program with both increased costs and levels of sponsorship.

A new top sponsorship level was created and set at a whopping USD 500,000. Other packages also saw their costs increase.

Sponsors found it hard to stomach the changes and ICANN has therefore revised its sponsorship program.

"Earlier this year, ICANN announced a new sponsorship program that introduced higher levels of support, as well as price increases for lower level sponsorship packages," says ICANN on its sponsorship website.

"Some of our supporters have found it difficult to purchase the sponsorship package that provides their preferred benefits at the new cost.

We have listened to concerns expressed by our community and today are announcing a revised sponsorship program that reduces the cost for many of our lower level sponsorship packages while retaining some of the higher level opportunities. 

We have also created a 33% discount rate for non-profit organizations."

ICANN has posted a preliminary draft of its FY 2012 budget (ICANN's fiscal year runs from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012). The document makes for interesting reading if you know what to look for. Here are a few titbits I picked up.

500 new gTLD applications

ICANN is still working on a year 1 estimate of 500 new gTLD applications and therefore forecasts taking in USD 92,500,000 in application fees (at 185,000 a pop) if the program launches during the upcoming fiscal year.

Greater than expected ccTLD contributions

Unlike gTLD registries and accredited registrars, ICANN has no direct contract with ccTLD registries. So they are free to contribute as little, or as much, to ICANN's budget as they see fit. It seems that for FY 2011, ICANN had underestimated the amount ccTLD operators would be willing to front. ICANN had forecast taking in USD 835,113 from ccTLD registries. In fact, it got USD 1,600,000. Ok so that's still far from the USD 32,647,000 that new gTLD registries contributed or the USD 29,159,000 that registrars ponied up, but it's still nice to see ccTLD registries getting stuck in.

Meeting sponsors

For the upcoming San Francisco meeting, in March, ICANN has considerably upped the price of its sponsorship packages. Some speculated that might be to finance Bill Clinton as a keynote speaker for the opening ceremony (Clinton charges organisers when he gives a speech). But the draft budget provides another possible explanation. ICANN had forecast getting USD 1,067,973 in sponsorship revenue for FY 2011. For the upcoming fiscal year, it has forecast less at USD 900,000. Have worries about not making the budget pushed ICANN to up its prices?

ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom will be one of the participants of a meeting with the governments happening in Brussels end of February to try and launch the new gTLD program as soon as possible.

ICANN has confirmed the dates for a highly anticipated meeting between its Board and the government representatives of its Governmental Advisory Committee. The meeting will happen in Brussels on Feb 28 and March 1.

Although the meeting will be open to observers and scribed, only Board and GAC members will be allowed to speak.

As Chair of one of ICANN's supporting organisations, the GNSO, I regret the decision not to solicit feedback from our group and from others. There would have been time in the run-up to this meeting for the GNSO to consult with its constituencies and stakeholder groups and, at the very least, prepare a statement.

The meeting is crucial as it aims to identify the remaining differences of opinion between the Board and the GAC on the best way to come to resolution on the new gTLD program.

If, at the end of the meeting, such differences remain, ICANN's bylaws may impose a further round of consultation with the GAC. This would undoubtedly prevent the program from being launched at the next ICANN international meeting, in San Francisco (March 13 to 18).

Read the Brussels meeting announcement here.

President Bill Clinton will guest star at ICANN's 40th international meeting, in San Francisco in March.

ICANN was started by the Clinton administration in 1998. With the California-based organisation returning home for its next meeting, Clinton's presence brings more prestige to what is already expected to be a heavily attended event.

Dubbed the "Silicon Valley" meeting, ICANN 40 is expected to break all attendance records as it draws local Internet professionals and companies on top of the fifteen hundred plus delegates that normally attend an ICANN meeting.

Clinton is expected to keynote at the opening ceremony. But getting the former US president isn't free. "We’ve seen some wildly inflated figures of what President Clinton would be paid to speak," says ICANN staffer Scott Pinzon on the organisation's blog. "His speaking fees are a matter of public record, and you can rest assured that the half-million and million-dollar figures some have reported are way out of line."

However much Clinton is being paid to show up, it won't come out of ICANN coffers. "The fees will be covered by a targeted sponsorship donated specifically for this purpose," adds Pinzon.

ICANN's sponsorship packs have been revamped for the San Francisco meeting, with new levels added such as the Diamond pack, priced at USD 500,000, or the Platinum Elite at USD 250,000! As Verisign is currently the only sponsor listed by ICANN, and the company is shown at Diamond level, it may be providing the "targeted sponsorship" that Pinzon alludes to.

In any case, the SF meetings looks like being a record-breaker for ICANN both in terms of attendance, and sponsorship revenue. Now if only the new gTLD program could be green-lit there, that would make it the perfect event for ICANN.