05 November, 2010

Recognition of an Arab ICANN Geographic Region

Relax.  This blog post is not about weighty geo-political matters.  Instead, I'll be using the subject to illustrate a different problem, namely ICANN Policy Staff overload.

Here's the timeline of events:

28 August -- The Council of Arab Telecommunication and Information Ministers ask ICANN to recognize the Arab Region as an ICANN geographic region.

15 October -- Rod Beckstrom replies.

20 October -- the geo-regions WG meets (with four members of ICANN Policy Staff attending), and the following statement is made: 

"One last thing just in terms of the agenda that we had circulated, we've noted just acknowledging the League of Arab States letter. I'm just trying to track down - because as you may all have noticed, that was sent to the CEO at the end of August.  I haven't confirmed whether there was an official response or whether one is being drafted."

If four members of ICANN Policy Staff weren't aware that the ICANN President sent out a formal response five days earlier, then it's rather clear that the ICANN Staff that we rely upon is suffering from the effects of severe fatigue.  It's time for ICANN to really wake up to the fact that it has a serious Staff overload problem.

footnote:  The WG members also were unaware that Rod Beckstrom had issued a formal reply.

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