ICANN chooses another controversial location for ICANN meeting.
Continuing a theme of holding ICANN meetings in places that members of the Intellectual Property Constituency are too afraid to go, ICANN’s board has approved holding its December meeting in Cartagena, Colombia.
As I discussed last month, I’m sure that ICANN didn’t take this decision lightly. It pulled off a successful meeting in Mexico City without much pushback. But its last meeting in Nairobi was lightly attended due to security concerns. Among the parties staying home were VeriSign, Go Daddy, Neustar, and the Intellectual Property Constituency. No major issues were reported in Kenya, despite a bomb threat against the building where the event was held and a meeting of African leaders at the same location.
Mexico, Kenya, and Colombia all have U.S. State Department travel warnings. Maybe ICANN was tired of going to countries where people could rip on it for just being a vacation travel club.
The Colombia meeting will be held December 5-10, 2010. The next meeting will be in March 2011, somewhere in North America.
Acro says
I’m sure there will be a nice pitch of .co there as well.
George Kirikos says
Acro: Maybe there will be a pitch for .drugs .cartel .laundering .cocaine .murder .crime and .lifeinsurance too. 🙂
regular reader says
Don’t forget about
.guns
.mule
.smack
.cash
.dea
.threat
.security
.screwu
.fxckusa
If you attend the Icann meeting in Colombia, leave the baby powder at home.
Tim says
Cartegena has had a rebirth in the last 10 years and tourism is flourishing there now.
Before it was a place even Colombians avoided. Now they are once again proud of it.
ICANN may be fooling everyone into thinking they are going to such a bad place when really they are going for the incredible nightlife…..and undoubtedly some will indulge in the cocaine and underage girls.
Does ICANN do drug tests on their staff? That would be VERY interesting to know. 🙂
George Kirikos says
Indeed, Tim. I tweeted about drug testing of ICANN employees (and board members) today….it should be mandatory, just like banks. If Rod Beckstrom is serious about security, having employees that are drug free should be a no-brainer.
Jaime says
Colombia is a wonderful country and Cartagena is an amazing city. You have to be there to realize it is not what you can see on TV or on a newspaper. I’ll very glad to address any concern some of you may have, as I’m from Colombia, at info [-at-] comunidadhosting dot com.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Jaime – it certainly seems to have come a long way in the past 10 years. From the perspective of ICANN and its meeting, that’s no guarantee that people will feel comfortable with it.
Jaime says
@ Andrew, thanks for your reply.
I think it’s a matter of perception. Sure, in Colombia we’re still dealing with a lot of issues (and specially in very specific places), but I can tell you that one thing is what you see on TV and one very different thing is what you can see being there, not to mention that Cartagena is a very special (and secure) place which often receives many international meetings.
I was born in Bogota, I attended the Mexico meeting and I’ve visited Cartagena. If you had the chance to attend the Mexico meeting, I can tell you that Mexico City and Bogota are somewhat similar, and Cartagena (the historic center, not the suburbs) would be the safest city out of the three. 🙂
John Berryhill says
Well, they could have picked a place like Arizona where one can be taken into custody by the police on suspicion of not being a US citizen. Any foreign visitor to Arizona who does not have their visa on their person at all times can go to jail.
I shudder to think of Amadeu Abril being hauled away from the microphone in handcuffs.
John Berryhill says
“drug testing of ICANN employees”
Medical marijuana is legal in California, and I’d bet that ICANN staff is very prone to carpal tunnel syndrome, which is an indicated condition.
George Kirikos says
It’s my understanding that employment in California is “at will”, so ICANN can terminate for any reason (as long as it’s not a reason based on illegal discrimination of a protected class, e.g. based on race, etc.). Employers can terminate smokers, for example, even though smoking is legal, as smokers are not a protected group.
See for example:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/03/24/michigan.medical.marijuana.fired/index.html
which mentions a 2008 Supreme Court of California decision, which upheld the employer’s right to terminate a medical mariuana user.