[At-Large] ICANN68 to be a virtual meeting

Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond ocl at gih.com
Sat Apr 11 08:17:45 UTC 2020


Dear Wolfgang,

whilst I'd like to think we can get by with only having two face to face
meetings per year, I am not convinced as I am already seeing the
limitations of such meetings.
First, I believe that this is likely to negatively impact on our
community. The ALAC and Regional Leaders are a Team that is supposed to
work together towards a common goal. A vital component of a Team is for
them to work well together and a synergy to come out of this
collaboration. This is impossible by doing meetings online only. You
need the essential human face to face element. You need people to be
able to talk to each other during a break. You need bilaterals.
Second, one thing which I have noticed over years of involvement at
ICANN, when the going gets tough, these moments in particularly tough
working groups where there is no consensus and we are a hair away from a
trench war, having a face to face meeting with the corridor discussions,
with other people around, with the possibility of speaking separately
with the person or group of people that do not agree on a consensus, is
a vital component part of finding the elusive consensus. For reasons of
confidentiality I cannot explain specific examples, but I can think of
dozens of times when, during a break, a deadlock has been resolved by
opposing parties meeting quickly in a corner of the room and
understanding what is the problem, off the record, to find a solution
and not end up with a failure in the process. I have personally
experienced this at many meetings, whether at ITU, United Nations, WIPO,
WEF... and of course at ICANN.
With less face to face meeting opportunities, I can foresee that some
ICANN processes are going to be delayed. I can foresee that some ICANN
processes might result in deadlock, because there is no opportunity to
meet face to face and reach a deal. Now that everyone speaks on the
record and nobody sees the facial expression, yet the white of the eye
and body language of the other persons they are speaking with,
participants end up speaking to a blank screen and rhetoric wins over
reason. In a top-down system where one person makes the decision, this
doesn't matter so much. But in a bottom-up system where everyone has to
work towards a common goal, the human touch is a vital component, as we
are not machines and never will be.
Kindest regards,

Olivier

On 10/04/2020 11:21, Wolfgang Kleinwächter wrote:
> I did this proposed already after virtuel at Cancun67: Lets reform the
> ICANN Meeting Strategy: One Spring and one Fall ICANN Meeting F2F, and
> one virtual meeting in the summer. This would also save travel money
> and be good for the environment.  :-)))
>
> wolfgang
>
>
>> Kaili Kan <kankaili at gmail.com> hat am 10. April 2020 um 02:32
>> geschrieben:
>>
>> If this works well, it may become the norm from now on.
>>
>> However, still feeling that nothing can replace F2F.  Already missing
>> everybody.   : (
>>
>> Kaili
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 2:50 AM Ali Almeshal <
>> dralialmeshal at gmail.com <mailto:dralialmeshal at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     Right decision.
>>
>>     Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>>     On Apr 9, 2020, at 9:30 PM, Maureen Hilyard <
>>>     maureen.hilyard at gmail.com <mailto:maureen.hilyard at gmail.com>>
>>>     wrote:
>>>
>>>     https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2020-04-09-en  
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>  
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-- 
Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD
http://www.gih.com/ocl.html

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