Being accountable for policy coordination and standards development is an awesome responsibility.
So, I have testified before the US Congress -- both House and Senate -- only 7 times in various hearings, about the very early days of the Internet. And about multi stakeholder efforts -- Internet links Up, GetNetWise, Internet Summit, advancing Congressional support for funding for research -- sort of long ago stuff. I helped to prepare other hearing agendas, when we first established the concept of ICANN, and then to help to recommend witnesses about why it would be good to move the functions that Jon Postel carried into a new entity -- which then, we called 'newco'.
We have come a long way. The work of the CCWG-Acct and CWG-/related to IANA functions is remarkable. We have a chance to update and inform members of the US Congress, and I hope that we think of this as a great opportunity.
I do.
I was there at the pre -beginning, so perhaps I really represent the minority now, who know how far we have come.
Really, when we created ICANN, with four staff, and no funding, we were not ready for this responsibility.
Now we are.
Time to celebrate this, but also to always recognize that the Internet is different in its breadth and scope than it was when we had less than 400 m users, most of whom came from less than 12 countries. This is an important opportunity for all of us to be more current in our understanding and to take the responsibilities that we, the community, want ICANN to accept, very very seriously. NOT because of geo politics, but because this will fulfill the mission and functions that we designed ICANN for.
I join with others in thanking the GAC, and recognizing with appreciation that they accepted observers in their deliberations. As some may note, many of the other constitutiencies are moving into closed discussions on their policy negotiations/development of positions, so it may be viewed with a little irony that the GAC is more open that the rest of us, so to speak. :-)