http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk An infuriatingly infrequently updated reflection on the Internet, the US, and life in general Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:01:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I was at the United Nations in Geneva last week to watch what was happening to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as it prepares for its third outing, this December in Hyderabad, India. Actually I was there for a different reason - an ICANN consultative meeting on the future of the ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2008/09/21/the-internet-governance-forum-%e2%80%93-third-time-lucky/ If anyone every wondered whether the Internet was vital, or if the new Internet Governance Forum suffered from a lack of interest, worry no more. Next week, a series of events will be held in Geneva covering the follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society and most importantly ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/05/16/welcome-to-geneva-the-entire-city-is-fully-booked/ I have just announced the creation of the "dynamic coalition" for online collaboration in the IGF meeting in Geneva. Effectively this is a group of people who plan to test and run online tools to help governments, businesses, civil society, NGOs and so on, have discussions and arrive at solutions, ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/02/13/dynamic-coalition-for-online-collaboration/ The Greek delegate has just spoken at the stocktaking meeting of the Internet Governance Forum in Geneva. He gave some stats from the first Athens meeting in November 2006 that might be worth preserving: 1350 participants (including 152 media, and coming from 97 countries) 8 translation booths and 20 translators 50 buses 7 metal detectors 4 ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/02/13/some-stats-on-the-igf-athens-meeting/ I am in Geneva for a stock-take of the first Internet Governance Forum in Athens last November. It should be an interesting meeting. The one thing that no one is any doubt about is that the IGF will be bigger and more important in 2007. Born out of international discussion (some ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/02/12/the-internet-rollercoaster-starts-up-the-track-again-igf-in-geneva/ Starting 5 February, I will be the "general manager, public participation" for ICANN - an organisation I have closely followed and frequently criticised almost since its inception in 1999. I'm excited about it, and the possibilities the position holds. Here then is a blog post about why I took the job ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2007/01/25/so-i-took-this-job-at-icann/ I've spent quite a bit of time recently building and running online participation websites - or, in English, trying to get people on the Internet learning about and interacting with physical meetings. Both have been for Internet organisations, which should theoretically make things easier. The first was the Internet Governance Forum ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2006/12/07/online-participation-the-possibilities-and-the-realities/ [I just posted this on the ICANN Participation website - and realised maybe I should have only posted it here on my own blog. So here is some daft repetition.] The Nominating Committee of ICANN decides who will take the most important posts in the organisation. It is also the most secretive ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2006/12/06/nomcom-nonsense-continues/ So I was asked by ICANN's "executive officer and vice president for corporate affairs" Paul Levins to do an online participation website for its meeting in São Paulo, starting officially on Monday. Paul was at the IGF in Athens last month and saw the site that Jeremy and I had done ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2006/12/02/online-participation-website-for-icann/ I am very tired so I have had to check what the new dotcom agreement - amended and then approved late yesterday by the US government's Department of Commerce - actually says several times before I believed it. Even now, I'm not so sure I have got it right. Which is ... http://kierenmccarthy.co.uk/2006/12/01/the-dotcom-contract-and-dangerous-usg-myopia/