I agree with you Carlton. Sure, the hard decisions were already decided "behind the scenes" so that there were no surprises. And yes, I suppose the board meeting transcript of such a ICANN Board meeting held after the conference can be done. But not seeing the body language of the ICANN Board as they explained their decisions on key issues in the history of ICANN (e.g .XXX , the launch of the new gTLD program) and also the sense of what the community felt as they listened to the statements, is lost. Hopefully, important issues to be decided by the ICANN Board would be done by special ICANN Board meetings such as the one held on Monday during the Singapore meeting, when the implementation of the new gTLD program was approved. Dev Anand On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 6:59 PM, Carlton Samuels <carlton.samuels@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm sure I may be in the minority to bemoan the passing of the usual 'public' Friday morning ICANN Board meeting.
Let us be clear I'm not just hopped off the truck here. I'm familiar enough with these matters to recognize it for what it is principally intended; theatre. But in the ICANN context, even crafted theatre has its role.
First, I truly believe that for a claimed multistakeholder organisation and while the 'public' board meeting may not have been all it could be, it was an important indicator or attribute of the MSM, especially having regard the global public interest.
Secondly, even if the votes are already taken, there existed an outside chance that one may witness truly revealing 'body language' of participants. Maybe its because for most of my life I have always straddled several socio-political realities. But I am socialized to be ever mindful that one may 'feel the hand of Esau even as you hear the voice of Jacob'.
I can still hear Susan Crawford's cathartic farewell speech in 2008. It was remarkable, the response in body language of several board members told a story. I will concede it may not mean much, then and there. Aferall, the deed is done and the die is cast. But when the 'fire next time' comes, it is instructive.
- Carlton Samuels
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