William Drake said:
FWIW, NCUC comprises 167 members from 53 different countries, including 80 noncommercial organizations and 87 individuals. One of those individuals is Milton. Anyone who has a gripe against someone else that cannot be ameliorated with soju and conversation is of course welcome to come but avoid them, or to take a pass. I wasn't suggesting mandatory bilaterals that will cause stress to anyone (although I would note that offline interactions with certain personas are generally far more congenial and productive, should one be inclined toward finding common ground, or at least mutual understanding). Bottom line, the same conversations are happening and the same concerns are being expressed in both communities, and balkanization based on past interpersonal difficulties is utterly self defeating to public interest representation in ICANN. Simply getting to know each other a bit better is rather small and easy step to take, there's no other agenda than that.
Well said. It's all-too-easy to be incendiary from the isolation of screen and keyboard. Being face to face offers people to look each other in the eye and see that 1) We're all just regular people, to whom a little respect and a smile can go a long way 2) Our goals, concerns and strategies are vastly more alike than they differ 3) Bringing down the heat level is in all our mutual interests - Evan