Re: [soac-mapo] Fw: Report on Implementation of GNSO New GTLD Recommendation #6

[Evan Leibovitch <evan@xxxxxxxxx>]

This wasn't just a matter of herding cats. The cats here are all used to
leading their own herds.

I hope that the Board appreciates the significance of this little experiment
in AC/SO collaboration -- which is certainly unprecedented in my relatively
short ICANN tenure. On what was a core obstacle to one of ICANN's most
important initiatives has been (I hope) largely addressed. As is expected in
a hard negotiation, nobody got everything they wanted but everyone seemed to
get a policy recommendation, that, if implemented, could be seen to work for
all.

Our work can (and should) be seen as a template to be used to address future
serious issues of contention. Arguably had a similar process been used to
deal with trademark issues two years ago, we would have avoided the whole
IRT catastrophe and saved the ICANN community substantial cost and time
delay. A current ongoing effort -- another AC/SO committee on reducing
obstables to gTLD creation to those who cannot afford the fees -- is less
contentious but also proving to be highly worthwhile in its ability to
achieve consensus amongst a diversity of stakeholders.

My congratulations extend to Chuck in particular and to all involved,
including (and indeed especially) those who disagreed with my positions. The
mood never became nasty and the discussions rarely veered off topic. Mutual
respect, and a desire to achieve a collaborative result, were the driving
themes. And I have new respect for Doodle as a tool that can do more than
just arrange meeting times.

Thanks to all. I hope that you all get your respective committees/councils
to approve the recommendations without too much difficulty.

- Evan