All, At the suggestion of Max, I would like to expand a bit on my past experience and involvement, and how I think it is relevant to ICANN and ALAC. My educational and professional background is in computer and network engineering. I think this is most helpful in the ICANN context. ICANN's job is narrowly focused on the implementation of technical standards related to Internet names and numbers. While they are often policy issues linked to that, we have to keep in mind the core mission of ICANN. Current debates inside the ICANN community over IDNs, IPv6 addresses in the root zone file and some aspects of the whois are good examples of what ALAC has to discuss. I have been a long time participant in ICANN processes and tried to contribute input to several of them and most recently the GNSO task force whois report. Through my work with ISOC, I have good links with the IETF community, where I have been advocating that technical choices should take the societal needs into account. This has not been the case over those last years, as research and development in Internet technologies have been exclusively influenced by short-term market demand. This brings us back to ICANN, in the sense that the latter relies on standards developed by the IETF, but some of the choices ICANN has to make (IDNSs, DNSSEC) target a longer term. As a "consumer" of IETF standards, ICANN should clearly tell the standards community what its needs are for the future. This is not happening right now. It is also important, I think, that ALAC acts as a counterweight to the power of the different business constituencies within ICANN. The recent decision of all major gTLDs to raise the fees of domain names is a good example of a decision the ALAC should fight.
From my perspective, it is crucial for the future ALAC to build its credibility based on people who are
A. well-known by other constituencies B. demonstrate they have the right mix of technical and policy background C. Most importantly, can demonstrate a long experience in ICANN. More information about me is available on my blog: http://patrick.vande-walle.eu GNSO Task force report on whois: http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/whois-services-final-tf-report-12... Should you wish to check my past involvement, Google is your friend : http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&as_qdr=all&q=+icann+%22patrick+v... -- Patrick Vande Walle Check my blog at http://patrick.vande-walle.eu Jabber me at patrick@vande-walle.eu