A few days ago LACTLD issued a statement about ICANN moving meetings out of their region. Today they’ve escalated matters and have written directly to the ICANN Board. Don’t worry, they’re still being very polite, but it’s very clear from their latest missive that they are not very happy with ICANN.
The letter, which is signed by not only LACTLD (Latin American and Caribbean TLD Association) , but also LACNIC (the IP address registry for Latin America and the Caribbean) and LAC-IX (the association of Latin American IXPs) , is quiet pointed. It picks up on the themes raised in the statement, namely their overall unhappiness with ICANN moving one meeting out of the region already this year and potentially moving the second. However they also make reference to ICANN declared regional rotation versus its actual rotation, pointing out that while ICANN claims that it rotates the meetings so that Latin America would get one in 5 meetings, the reality is that they only ever get 1 in 6.
Here’s the letter in full in both Spanish and English:
May 4th., 2016
Dr. Steve Crocker
Chair
ICANN Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry, LACNIC, the Board of Directors of the Latin America and Caribbean TLD Association, and the Board of Directors of the Latin America and Caribbean Association of Internet Exchange Points, LAC-IX, wish to express their deepest concern about the cancellation of meetings scheduled by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in the Caribbean and Central America regions, the one which was due to take place during the month of June, 2016, in Panama City, and the current discussion about the cancellation of the October, 2016, meeting in Puerto Rico.
We wish to point out that, according to our experience, there have been no obstacles whatever that would impede all our regional organizations from holding our meetings normally, in any of the territories of the above mentioned region.
In addition, the signing organizations wish to inform you that the cancellation of the Panama meeting, and the eventual cancellation of the meeting in Puerto Rico scheduled for the end of October of this year, have a direct negative impact on the participation of our communities in the region, since they view these meetings as favorable opportunities to get together for the development of their respective work agendas, leveraging geographic and cultural proximity. This has a direct effect on the development of the Internet in our regions.
To date, only one of each six meetings that were held and scheduled, have taken place in the LAC region, whereas the agreement is that it would be one in five, and there is no evidence that this proportion will be fulfilled in the near future.
For ICANN to become a truly global organization, it must take upon itself to modify its expectations and improve its understanding of the challenges to holding meetings in our region. In the event of grave risk, we consider that our organizations in the region can provide relevant information and local understanding that can contribute to determine the dimension of such risk, and allow ICANN to take a better decision.
We wish to express our willingness to work collaboratively on an adequate evaluation of the circumstances that might generate some risk for our communities..
Wardner Maia
President of LACNIC
Eduardo Santoyo
President of LACTLD
Ariel Graizer
President of LAC-IX
4 de Mayo 2016
Sr Presidente del Directorio de ICANN
Steve Crocker
Atentamente
El Directorio del Registro de Direcciones de Internet para América Latina y el Caribe, LACNIC, el Consejo Directivo de la Asociación de América Latina y Caribe de Dominios de Alto Nivel, LACTLD y el Directorio de la Asociación Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Puntos de Intercambio de Tráfico, LAC-IX, desean expresar su mayor preocupación por la cancelación de reuniones de la Corporación de Internet para la Asignación de Nombres y Números, ICANN, en la región del Caribe y América Central, la que debía llevarse a cabo en el mes de Junio de 2016 en la ciudad de Panamá y la discusión actual sobre la cancelación de la reunión del mes de Octubre de 2016 en Puerto Rico.
Hacemos notar que, de acuerdo a nuestra experiencia, no ha existido obstáculo alguno para que todas las organizaciones regionales sigamos desarrollando normalmente nuestras reuniones en cualquiera de los territorios de la región antes mencionada.
Junto a lo anterior, las organizaciones firmantes desean manifestar que la cancelación de la reunión de Panamá y eventualmente la cancelación de aquella prevista para Puerto Rico agendada para finales del mes de octubre de este año, perjudica directamente la participación prevista de nuestras comunidades en la región, las cuales ven en estos encuentros las oportunidades propicias para reunirse en el desarrollo de sus respectivas agendas de trabajo, aprovechando la cercanía geográfica y cultural. Esto incide directamente en el desarrollo de Internet en nuestras regiones.
A la fecha, sólo una de cada seis reuniones realizadas y programadas se han desarrollado en la región LAC, cuando el compromiso es que sea una de cada cinco y no hay evidencia de que esta proporción se cumpla en el corto plazo.
Si ICANN pretende ser una organización realmente global, debe obligarse a modificar sus expectativas y mejorar el entendimiento de los desafíos al realizar eventos en nuestra región. Ante un riesgo grave consideramos que nuestras organizaciones en la región podemos proporcionar información y entendimiento local relevante que ayude a dimensionar el riesgo y permitirle a ICANN tomar una mejor decisión.
Expresamos nuestra disposición a trabajar colaborativamente en una evaluación adecuada de las circunstancias que puedan generar algún riesgo para nuestras comunidades.
Wardner Maia
Presidente de LACNIC
Eduardo Santoyo
Presidente de LACTLD
Ariel Graizer
Presidente de LAC-IX
Will this letter make any difference?
It’s hard to say. While ICANN is currently playing nice with a lot of people (and organisations) in its bid to get the IANA transition finalised, it’s also not beholden to any one region or stakeholder group. If a lot of people refuse to travel to a meeting due to concerns related to a virus outbreak (Zika in this case) it will have a domino effect, as happened when concerns were raised around the last meeting in Nairobi in 2010. That time quite a few of the North American contingent ended up setting up a remote hub near Washington DC rather than travelling to Nairobi which at the time was considered “at risk”.
The ICANN Board is expected to take a decision on the location of ICANN 57 before the end of this month.
