I was never bothered about the "security worries" and in all of the hoopla surrounding, struggled to keep my peace. To the lot who were carrying on, I could have mentioned Oklahoma City and the almost 300 souls lost to a 'misguided' red-blooded American male. I could be from Austin, Texas where a fella upset with his Uncle Sam flew his plane into an IRS building and killed. Of course the American chattering classes still have a difficulty classifying these as terrorist incidents - likely because of the antecedents of the perpetrators - and the balanced and nuanced views these would have invoked in reasonable people. I personally was very gratified to see Adam Peake's post on the incident. Goes to show what transpires when people of goodwill are engaged..... Carlton On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 9:58 AM, Adam Peake <ajp@glocom.ac.jp> wrote:

Shame about the security worries.

A few days after ICANN left, U2 and Bono dropped by the KICC (to speak not play), along with the Aga Khan and more presidents and prime ministers. Oh well...

ICANN's flickr stream has some good pictures < http://www.flickr.com/photos/icann/> and check photo 8 < http://www.michellechaplow.com/icann-nairobi.htm>

Adam

Security: KICC was OK for Kenya's President and other regional heads of state. Last

ICANN wraps up in Nairobi with no security hitches

...

By Rebecca Wanjiku <http://www.computerworld.co.ke/users/rebecca-wanjiku> 12 Mar, 2010

For the ICANN local organizing committee, today is a great day, it is the last day of the meeting, which by any standards can be considered a success considering the security video produced by ICANN just before the meeting.

From December last year, the LOC was involved more in answering security

...

questions, whether the ruling coalition will break and whether the Al Shabab terrorist group will get away from the lucrative piracy along the gulf of Aden to attack KICC. No one denied that there were security concerns but thats a common denominator for many countries, rich or poor.

In retrospect, I think the whole security debate benefitted Kenya and to some extent the continent. ICANN meetings have geographical rotation and am sure issues of security will come up the next time Africa is meant to host the meeting.

For Kenya, the successful meeting is vital, given that the Internet Governance Forum will be held in the country next year. If the IGF raises the security issues, Kenya can point to ICANN and the security video, and the success that was achieved.

To ICANN, the remote participation was good, the online participation matrix was shared before the meeting started and the parallel meetings in the US now look a bit ill advised.

The 100mb bandwidth at the conference venue was very stable, I did not experience any hitches, even during the opening ceremony, where there were at least 100 laptops on; everyone at ICANN at least carries a laptop but not all were on at the time.

For the ICANN participants who danced at the Carnivore till 4am, it just shows that they were enjoying the hospitality and the good things that the country has to offer. For those who took the Safaris, that is better than the caged animals out there.

The meeting was optional for many people but for those in the new gTLD debate, it was important to have the two minutes on the mic in the public forum. Even members of the Government Advisory Committee took the mic, led by Bertrard De La Chapelle from France, who took the 2 minute Mic like 20 times, just to emphasize the importance of public sessions.

For the ICM guys, the Independent Review Committee and those interested in matters of transparency in ICANN, the .xxx debate was important and their presence is vital, even in the face of security concerns.

So, the meeting had lessons and successes for everyone; with more than 1000 people picking their conference bags, I think the meeting was a success and offers vital lessons to others holding meetings in Nairobi.

Ends

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-- +========+++++++++++++++====== Carlton A Samuels Strategies for Education Technologies and Curriculum Development, Process Engineering & Improvement, ICT Policy, Internet Governance