[NCUC-DISCUSS] ICANN, TRAVEL, TRUMP

[Ayden Férdeline]

Thanks for raising awareness of this issue, Ed.

Our chair has been quoted in an article published on Vice today which outlines how this disruption has impacted the participation of some members of the ICANN community: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/icann-trump-travel-ban-internet

A year ago I would have agreed with you that Adobe Connect is not a suitable platform for remote participation. I still don't think it is perfect. However, after being subjected to many substantially inferior platforms over the past year, it might be a case of it being the best of a bad bunch of tools. Yes, let's encourage ICANN to explore other options, but keep an open mind to the idea that our current tool mightn't be too bad after all.

We should re-assess the viability of Puerto Rico hosting an ICANN meeting in March 2018 in the months ahead, but for now, I think it is too soon for anyone to make the call that the meeting must be relocated to another location. I think it is legitimate for ICANN to perform a risk assessment and to move meetings where there is a credible threat to the delegates. But it might be a disproportionate response to move a meeting because not all delegates will qualify for a visa to enter the host country. I realise how upsetting this situation must be for those who are impacted and unable to travel to a location. But moving meetings to a different country isn't necessarily a solution. This is one reason why I support the geographic rotation of meetings, to try to share the burden of visa obstacles.

That being said, I sometimes worry we spend far too much time discussing travel, travel arrangements, and meeting locations, at the detriment of policy work. (And to be very clear, I am not directing this comment at you, Ed, but at the wider ICANN community.)

Best wishes,



Ayden Férdeline
[linkedin.com/in/ferdeline](http://www.linkedin.com/in/ferdeline)



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NCUC-DISCUSS] ICANN, TRAVEL, TRUMP
Local Time: 30 January 2017 10:40 PM
UTC Time: 30 January 2017 22:40
From: egmorris1 at toast.net
To: NCUC-discuss <ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org>


With our Chair unable to safely attend the NCPH Intercessional meeting in Reykjavik in two weeks time due to the American governments travel restrictions ( http://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/ncuc-ec/2017-January/003567.html ), Milton Mueller's take on "Internet Governance And Trump's Assault on International Travel ( http://www.internetgovernance.org/2017/01/30/internet-governance-and-trumps-assault-on-international-travel/ ) is of particular relevance to NCUC members. Thank you, Milton, for writing it.

We are in the early stages of this new administration. We still do not know what the policy of this new American government will be towards ICANN and our work. As an American corporation, there are concerns immediate and distant, operational and more theoretical, as to the impact of this Republican government on ICANN. "America First" and "One World, One Internet" just may be two slogans that can not be easily reconciled.

As we wait and watch, as a Constituency we need to be vigilante and supportive of all our members. With the unstable nature of the United States government, I'd suggest the Board may have acted a bit too quickly in approving Puerto Rico as a meeting site for ICANN 61. Some community groups, including some in the noncommercial world, are already considering a boycott of ICANN 60 for other reasons.

Regardless of what happens with both of these Meetings, I'd encourage our NCUC leadership to demand that ICANN devote more resources to remote participation. ICANN sponsored regional hubs may be part of a solution, modern technology certainly is. Adobe Connect simply is no longer state of the art. Although we need to be careful with the bandwidth limitations of our members, we can and need to develop state of the art, ICANN specific remote participation tools. It's one way to proactively adapt to the new world environment.

Thanks, again, Milton. More challenges for us to meet as we fight to preserve noncommercial values such as free speech, privacy, due process and fair use on the global internet.

Kind Regards,


Ed Morris
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