Karl Auerbach, in a post titled "Time for Euthenasia" writes: "The ALAC was given a fair chance to succeed.  But it has not done so. It is time to write off ICANN's ALAC as the failure it is."

I've only been associated with the ALAC since March of this year, so I can't speak to its work the first couple of years, but I have a different impression both of the ALAC's performance and its role in ICANN. First, I think all the ALAC members would admit that the ALAC has not been a success. That doesn't mean it's a failure though. Second, as far as whether it's time to shutter the ALAC, it depends on what the alternative is. If the alternative is a more empowered At Large, then by all means, yes, let's get rid of the ALAC and do this new thing. But if the alternative is getting rid of At Large participation in ICANN altogether, no way.

What has the ALAC done? You can start with the Board. The ALAC has five appointments to make to the NomComm, the largest voting bloc on this important ICANN body. You only need to look at people like Joi Ito, Veni Markovski, and Njeri Rionge to see the difference that the ALAC has made in the composition of the ICANN Board. We also have a Board liaison, Roberto Gaetano, appointed from our own ranks. I, for one, feel better about ICANN because I know that Roberto is there. Avri Doria is now a voting member of the GNSO Council, appointed by the NomComm, and I think you can draw a straight line between the ALAC's participation in the NomComm and Ms. Doria's appointment to this body.

Where the ALAC still faces its biggest challenge is in building the byzantine structures of ALSs and RALOs contemplated in the post-ICANN Reform bylaws. We don't like it either. We've recently proposed some bylaw changes to the ICANN Board that will make it easier to accredit At Large Structures, but we'd like to find a better overall structure for participation by end-users. Ideas are welcome. We also need to improve in providing policy advice to the GNSO, ASO, ccSO and ICANN Board. But don't take away our voice altogether.

I'll make a few suggestions for ALAC improvements in an upcoming podcast.

Take a look: audio.weblogs.com.

In today's show I talk about yesterday's Strategic Planning Meeting in Marina del Rey (my notes are here, in opml). I also welcome the ICANN Board into town for their two-day "Board retreat" with today's header music and talk a little bit about what a "Post-MOU" ICANN should look like. (iPro Radio 49 / 10 Minutes) Header Music: "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" by Hank Williams, Jr.

I'm at the ICANN Strategic Planning workshop in Marina del Rey. Today is primarily a brainstorming session about ICANN's challenges and priorities. I'll try to make sense of all of this in the coming days, but I've been taking notes in OPML.

If you have an OPML application, then you know what that coffee cup means. If not, you can look over here.

Scripting News: "On this day in 1998, Jon Postel died."

Ross Rader: "Hopefully we’re in sync with where Jon would have wanted us to be."

Resolutions have been proposed in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to support the status quo in the oversight of ICANN and the DNS. The text of the resolutions are here: House Resolution HR268 and Senate Resolution S273. Thanks to the reader who sent in the text!

Press Release from the Office of U.S. Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN): "Senator Norm Coleman today introduced a Sense of the Senate Resolution to protect the U.S.’s historic role in overseeing the operations of the Internet from an effort to transfer control over the unprecedented communications and informational medium to the U.N....."

In today's show I talk about the ICANN Strategic Planning meetings that start tomorrow in Marina del Rey and note what might happen if .XXX is left unresolved until the Vancouver meetings. I also talk about digital distribution of media and digital residuals for artists and ask for input for a legal forum at the upcoming Portable Media Exposition. (iPro Radio 48 / 10 Minutes) Header Music: "That's How We Do It in L.A." by Lindsey Buckingham.

Today's show has an ambitious agenda, and I don't do justice to any of the items. I'll be attending the ICANN Strategic Planning meeting this week on behalf of the At Large. I note an interesting new ICANN staff appointment and discuss Esther Dyson's view that ICANN is a  legitmate manager of the DNS precisely because it's illegitimate...or something like that. I also give short shrift to this comment on IDNs but promise to talk more about IDNs soon. (iPro Radio 47 / 10 Minutes) Header Music: "The Streetbeater" by Quincy Jones.

In today's show I give kudos to Verisign for buying weblogs.com (and audibly choke myself doing so) and then comment a little bit more on the .NET registry amendments now under consideration by ICANN. (iPro Radio 46 / 10 Minutes) Header Music: "Agent Double-0-Soul" by Edwin Starr.

Paul Twomey: "We are firmly committed to a multi-stakeholder approach....We expect to evolve, we expect to keep changing. We are concerned about stability [of the internet] and we think it's best to evolve existing institutions. Our present corporate structure is a matter of history, not of any particular design."

I either don't understand or don't agree with that last sentence. ICANN was designed and its design is a result of many discussions and negotiations over a period of years. It was redesigned, with celebrated time and effort, just a couple of years ago. The result may not be pretty and still can be improved, but it didn't line up like this by some historical accident.

Check it out: www.weblogs.com.

Verisign Press Release: "VeriSign purchased Weblogs.com from Scripting News, Inc. for $2.3 million in cash. To read more about VeriSign’s work in supporting the blogosphere, visit http://www.verisign.com/infrablog."

The ICANN Board will hold another one of its closed Board meetings today. The agenda is ambitious:

• Consideration of .NET RRA and .NET Registry Agreement Amendment
• VeriSign Litigation Status Update
• Review and Consideration of Policy Development Process Results and Public Comments for "Procedure for use by ICANN in considering requests for consent and related contractual amendments to allow changes in the architecture or operation of a gTLD registry"
• Appointment of new Chief Financial Officer
• Consideration of .ASIA sTLD Application
• Review and Consideration of GNSO Bylaw Change Recommendation
• Nominating Committee Scheduling Recommendation
• Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) Issues Update
• Board Governance Committee's Proposal for a Compensation Committee
• Redelegation of .TK (Tokelau)
• Branch Office Approvals for ICANN's Brussels Office
• Update on Proposed .XXX sTLD Registry Services Agreement Negotiations
• Other Business

More soon.

Paul Vixie: "[I] think the general structure of ICANN-- a public benefit corporation with international governance-- is the right steward for top level naming and numbering authority.  ICANN seems to have some problems fulfilling that role, either because of USG oversight or weak internal controls or whatever-- but that's not a reason to prefer a small neutral government over the structure that ICANN was originally supposed to have, and perhaps, could still have."

This pretty well sums up my current thinking as well.

The Guardian UK: "The European commission is warning that if a deal cannot be reached at a meeting in Tunisia next month the internet will split apart."

Yes, but only if they break it.

ICANN has just closed the public comment period on the revised .NET agreement with Verisign. I review the comments submitted and provide a few thoughts of my own. (iPro Radio 45 / 10 Minutes) Header Music: "Fight the Power" by The Isley Brothers.

Michael D. Gallagher, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce: "We embrace [the] concepts of the private sector, the marketplace and freedom of expression. So the contrast [between the EU position and the US position] is stark and the choice is clear."

If the article weren't in the Washington Times, I'd call it Exhibit "E."

Mark these as Exhibits "C" and "D" in support of the backlash against WSIS: LifeSite Editorial, "Control of Internet Being Taken Away From US For Questionable Reasons" and Jon C. Ryter, "UN Wants Control of the Internet."

See yesterday's podcast for Exhibits "A" and "B."

This is terrific. Take a look: podcasts.yahoo.com. And, yup, you can find my podcast in the Yahoo! directory (feel free to rank me  ) Or use the search term "ICANN".

The call for international oversight of ICANN and the Internet got some unexpected traction at Prepcom-3 in Geneva. Is it time for the backlash? That's the subject of today's podcast. Referenced articles include these editorials from The Economist and The Gazette. (iPro Radio No. 44 / 10 Minutes) Header Music: "Got To Give The People What They Want" by The O'Jays.

The Gazette, from Montreal, Canada, has an unsigned editorial in today's edition that endorses staying the course with ICANN rather than opting into U.N.-managed oversight of Internet resources.

I'm migrating to a new machine for my everyday work. For the past three years, my everyday work computer has been an IBM Thinkpad X31 running Windows XP. I'm typing this post from a Lenovo Thinkpad T43 running Linux (Fedora Core 4).

As soon as I loaded Linux, without a dual boot, I immediately had second thoughts. Not everything worked out of the box. The wireless card wasn't recognized, and unlike other Linux distributions, Fedora doesn't come with an MP3 Player or a DVD Player. But those problems were quickly fixed. After a few hours of tinkering, everything seems to work well, including the MP3s and DVDs. It's amazing what little difference operating systems make these days. My data seems to move happily across the OS divides. So far, so good.

From the October 6th Print Edition. Read it. It's excellent. (for non-subscribers, a copy is here).

Add: Karl Auerbach disagrees. But Karl, The Economist article is good not because of how it describes ICANN but in how it describes the WSIS-proposed alternatives to ICANN.

Wow. These look like excellent appointments. ICANN: "David Conrad joins ICANN as General Manager IANA." and "Kim Davies joins ICANN as IANA Technical Liaison."

Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State: "U.S. officials are engaged in ongoing talks with other governments, private enterprise and nongovernmental organizations working to craft an agreement on the future of Internet governance for presentation at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to be held in Tunis, Tunisia, November 16-18...."

Okay State Department, where do I send my comments? Where's the public forum? I have some thoughts for you....

What's in the Reader Mailbag this week? I comment on the comments, and answer a question about alternate roots and the meaning of 'end-to-end.' Three of my new favorite podcasts: David Lawrence (RSS), The Business (RSS), and Martini Shot (RSS). (iPro Radio No. 43 / 12 Minutes) Header Music: "Cadillac Jack's No. 1 Son" by Kevin Gordon.

Andy Sullivan, writing for Reuters: "Thousands of Internet users struggled to send e-mail and keep their Web sites running on Thursday after a dispute between two service providers left large portions of the Internet unable to talk to each other. Computer technicians scrambled to shore up their networks after Level 3 Communications Inc. refused to accept traffic from rival Cogent Communications Group Inc., rendering large portions of the Internet unreachable by others."

I understand that this has affected by law firm's e-mail as well. If you need to reach me, use my personal mail accounts.

Can you "security and stability"?