Thanks, Patrick. Which brings the conversation to the point that Robert's initial e-mail was not for this mailing list. I hate to see the AL list turning into a cover version of the "Internet Governance Caucus" list, where people talk about anything, and achieve nothing. Perhaps one of the reasons why people in general are not willing to participat in such discussions, is that they don't want to waste their time in aimless conversations... Soon we'll be discussing not only Internet freedoms (there are a number of places where this could happen), privacy, freedom of speech, etc. But at the same time the western proponents of these very freedoms are quite quiet on the issue of affordability of the Internet access, or accesability, or why even in their own countries there is no real competition, etc., etc - many topics which could be discussed at the IGF, but instead are being forcefully driven into the AL and other lists, dedicated to specific issues. Veni At 01:30 PM 5/27/2008 +0200, Patrick Vande Walle wrote:
On Mon, 26 May 2008 18:05:03 +0430 (IRDT), "Siavash Shahshahani" <shahshah@irnic.ir> wrote:
ICANN could at least be asked to seek assurance of cooperation from the host country in the issuance of visas for people from the region!
Siavash,
Having hosted a previous ICANN meeting, I confirm ICANN specifically asks the local hosts to make visa issuance easier for all participants. In our case, we were lucky to have a direct contact with the government officials, which indeed made issuance easier. Still, I can remember a few visas were nevertheless declined. Just do not expect ICANN and the local hosts to be able to change long standing political choices.
Best,
Patrick Vande Walle