These are copies of two letters I posted on July 6, 1998 after the IFWP meeting in Reston.
 
 

Personal Impressions from the IFWP

I'm eager to give my impressions of the IFWP meeting, so I'm taking a
break from my efforts on Working Group D's minutes to post some very
unofficial recollections.

Around 8 or so on Wednesday morning I found the registration area, and
then a snack and coffee table around the corner, where I spotted Dave
Farber, who remembered me from a previous meeting. He and one or two
others were involved in a conversation which touched lightly on
substantive questions and dwelled more on our common need for coffee
in the morning. Before long a well-groomed Jay Fenello arrived and
elegantly introduced himself. Soon people were showing up in bunches,
striking up new acquaintances and conversations while reaching for
pastries, and then getting jostled out of the way as dozens more
streamed in.

During the middle of this I saw Chris Ambler for the first time. He
padded in quickly, wearing an all white theme accentuated by a
comfortable looking Microsoft sweater, and bounced toward the
conference area. As I recall, we perused each other's name tags just
as he was going inside to the main room. He greeted me with a big
smile and the parting comment, "There's that Craig Simon guy."

As the proceedings began, the large room seem full, but not crowded, I
think somewhat shy of  200 people. Dr. Frankel spoke briefly,
introducing Ira Magaziner who extemporized his favorite mantras about
establishing "stakeholder-based, private, non-profit, representative,
international groups" and then disappeared from the scene. She then
took the podium to make a longer statement.

>From her opening comments it was clear that Dr. Frankel was no expert
on the Internet, which she frankly admitted. This became especially
obvious when she stumbled over the pronunciation of the URL of the
IFWP's website. However, she was exceptionally strong and interesting
when talking about the issues of her specialty--the circumstances
under which voluntary trade and commercial associations successfully
organize themselves. It was clear she had must have had many
insightful lessons to offer, particularly in relation to why creating
this new endeavor "at first blush didn't look like a good prospect for
resolution." But instead she tried to put things in a positive light,
and set us to organizing ourselves into the three groups she had
specified for that day's agenda.

Egged on by Eric Weisberg, I chose Working Group A (Profile of the New
Entity), which was chaired somewhat loosely by Karl Auerbach. The
group was extremely raucous and it was so hard to hear anything that I
left in disappointment after about 45 minutes. Looking across the
room, I could see that Chris Ambler was leading Group B (Board of
Directors and Membership), and the situation there--though beckoning
with DNS junkies--looked just as crazy. It was easy to surmise,
however, that Chris has a louder voice and a more commanding style
than Karl. So I stood at the edge of group C (Members Rights and
Liabilities), a small island of about a dozen people straddling the
middle of the Hyatt conference room. This was a calm discussion,
though it seemed to be wandering and wide ranging, and struck me as
preoccupied with very basic issues. The combined impact of the two
groups strengthened my feeling that the initial discourse at the IFWP
didn't seem to be building on anything that had gone before. There was
no sense of institutional memory. But this second group was more
civilized, easier, and interesting because it was calm. Everyone knew
they'd get their chance. Kathy Kleiman looked to be the leader, but
the group really didn't seem to need her as a focal point. She even
left the table for a short period. Chuck Gomes and someone else from
NSI were very active participants, as were some attorneys that I
guessed were related to big media and trademark interests. I didn't
know enough of the people to assess the political balance, but Anthony
Van Couvering joined it during the afternoon session (by then moved
into a separate room) which is a positive sign.

Wanting to touch all bases before the end of the day, I left the
tranquility of Group C for the maelstrom of Group B. Here I soon
gathered that the process had been altered to temper the volubility of
the chair. A few people later mentioned to me that Chris Ambler had
been responding to nearly every comment from the floor (I didn't
witness this myself). Consequently things were changed so that people
who wanted to present their ideas were selected at random and were
given a block of time to speak and take questions. All the group B
people I met said they were much happier with the afternoon session.

I would add that I had lunch that day with Paul Garrin and Milton
Mueller, and I decided I like them both very much. I found myself in
agreement with a lot of Paul's philosophical ideas, since he's in
synch with the concepts of domain name portability and persistent
coherence in the root,  but I'm far from qualified to comment on
whether his plan is technically feasible. In any case, I urged him to
submit himself to the IETF's RFC processes. I described the IETF
working groups as a "techie pickup game" where he would be welcomed
but challenged. Milton gave me one of his new articles which I read on
Friday. My reaction to it was the same I've had to most his stuff that
I've read: Fine empirics, but a conclusion I can't subscribe to.
That's academia.

Whenever I go to these things, I keep running into Stef. I gave him a
copy of my chapter  "Internet Governance Goes Global." It will be
interesting to see if he continues equating me with Marxists after he
reads it. He and I did agree that the IFWP attendees conducted
themselves like grownups and pulled together well, despite the
remarkable disorganization that kicked off the first morning.

I also had an eye-opening talk with Dr. Frankel and a few others right
after the close of the morning sessions on Thursday. She was having
her eyes opened as well. Dr. Frankel was experiencing a condition I
would call "DNS mess newcomer shock," which can cause a profound
shaking of the head from side to side. Symptoms also can include a
repeated uttering of the phrase, "I can't believe this," but she
seemed to be suppressing those urges.  She said she had thought hard
about bringing in a professional mediator for the workshop, but
realized the community would be unlikely to accept one. I gathered
that Dr. Frankel had initially anticipated (or hoped) that her
commitment would end after 5 PM Thursday, but "unfortunately" this no
longer looked possible to her.  She mentioned that much of the
confusion over who was in charge of the GIAW/IFWP institutional
process stemmed from a tragically human intervening variable: grave
illness in the family of a key coordinator, impeding her ability to
provide sustained leadership.

The last notable observation for now comes from a conversation I had
with Ron Kawchuk, a member of the IFWP steering committee. I was
inquiring into the details about how and when he first acquired the
information about the initiatives that led to the formation of the
committee, when he made one of the most important and revealing
statements of the entire conference: "We realized that this was our
chance to show the IAHC how things should be done."

yours,

Craig Simon
 
 

Group D Reflections