[council] With You in Spirit

["Jon Englund" <jon.englund@excitehome.net>]

Names Council Members,

As you know, the challenges associated with my new job responsibilities at
Excite@Home have not allowed me the time necessary to continue to serve on
the Names Council, so I declined to run for a business constituency seat in
the most recent elections.

I want to thank you for the privilege of serving with you on the provisional
NC as the structure for the NC and DNSO has been put in place.  I've enjoyed
the time spent with all of you tremendously, and feel that I've grown
personally during this experience as well.  Despite the occassional
frustration :-), overall it has been an enriching experience.  I've
particularly appreciated getting to know many Internet leaders and
enthusiasts from outside the U.S.  I'm a fan of those geographic diversity
requirements, even though they can be challenging to implement.   Much of
ICANN's future success and credibility will be drawn from its credibility
around the world.

What won't I miss?  Probably those crack of dawn conference calls, spam,
allegations of my role in a global Internet conspiracy :-)...etc.  I might
miss those urgent weekend calls from Catalonia, however!

Ensuring ICANN's stability and success is an important undertaking to ensure
a bright future for the Internet as it enters its next stage of development.
Our work on the provisional Names Council and DNSO has contributed in at
least a small way towards this goal.  We have completed stage 1 of the
effort to get ICANN and the DNSO off the ground, and despite all the warts
(and there are more than a few), I'm sure Jon Postel would acknowledge the
importance of our collective work.

ICANN's current leadership also deserves your support and the benefit of the
doubt.  They are all working tirelessly for little personal gain because
they are committed to the notion of a self-governing international body to
coordinate some of the Internet's centralized functions.  They understand --
and so must we -- the unattractive alternatives if ICANN does not succeed.

I agree with the sentiments expressed by some members of the NC that too
much time has been spent on process (probably a necessary evil); as we enter
ICANN's next chapter, more of the focus must be on the DNSO and NC making
substantive recommendations to ICANN's Board.

I'm planning to be at the LA meeting, and hope to see most of you there.
For now, I'll be watching from the sidelines.

Thanks for the memories.

Jon

Jon Englund
Director, Policy and Government Affairs
Excite@Home
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