Dear All: This topic was touched in Cairo at Open Forum and I believe is neccesary (like said Norbert Klein) more discussion about it. http://public.icann.org/en/node/2007 ICANN's geographical diversity Submitted by YoungEum on Thu, 2008-11-06 11:26. This is the text of my comment during the Cairo public forum. ICANN's core value #4 focuses on geographic and cultural diversity at all levels of policy development and decision-making. This value has been repeatedly emphasized in the DoC's midterm review of the JPA as well. I would first like to acknowledge the efforts of ICANN to adhere to this value by adopting the geographical diversity principle to its board and various committees as well as the decision to hold the meetings in a rotating fashion in the five geographical regions. At the same time, however, I would like to point out some areas which I believe requires continued effort in this area, specifically, in the distribution of ICANN staff. According to the figures in the ICANN site, out of the 73 staff members, there are NO members from Latin America, 4 from Africa , 13 from Europe, and 45, or 62% of staff members, are from the North American region, of which 41 are from the United States. In the case of the AP region, 6 staff members are from Australia, 1 from the Middle East, and 4 are from the rest of Asia. And although I think that the ccNSO chair, Chris Disspain, the President of ICANN, Paul Twoomey, and a significant member of the Board, Bruce Tonkin, all from Australia, and ICANN board chair, Peter DT, from New Zealand are doing a fabulous job and I have only the highest admiration for them, and personally have the warmest feelings especially for Peter and Chris, I would hesitate to fully agree that the truly Asian perspective, which constitutes 40% of all Internet Users in the world, is represented by their presence on those important positions. I would like to point out that in terms of geographical diversity, ICANN still has some way to go in terms of reflecting the truly Asian perspective and would like to publicly make an appeal to ICANN to consider this in the future, for example, in..... Carlos Dionisio Aguirreabogado - Sarmiento 71 - 4to. 18 Cordoba - Argentina -*54-351-424-2123 / 423-5423www.derechoytecnologia.com.arhttp://ar.ageiadensi.org _________________________________________________________________