Has the novelty of the Internet worn off? Vinton Cerf, chief Internet evangelist for Google and one of the Internet's founding fathers, suspects that after 30-some years, it may well have.
For this reason and others, Cerf recorded a video that you can see on YouTube in which he tries to drum up enthusiasm for applying for one of the nine open positions at ICANN, the Internet addressing agency of which he is chairman. The application deadline, which has been extended twice, is Friday.
Related topics: DNS, ICANN, Internet Governance
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This is a bit of a weird angle. I'm not sure what "diminishing novelty" means. The interview certainly doesn't imply any novelty or otherwise. Anyway…
I thought it might be worth me sticking my head up for this one since I asked Vint to do it, I filmed it, asked the questions, edited the results and posted it to YouTube (as well as the ICANN website).
The idea was to get Vint to explain why ICANN was important, and do so in time for people to apply to the NomCom to take a leadership role in the organisation. Personally, I think that what he has to say will remain relevant for a couple of years at least and may even be of historical value. I may do another video that contains some of the 20-odd minutes I had to cut to get it down to an easily digestible size.
Just as an aside - the NomCom has only extended its deadline once this year, rather than two as you state. This is one less than usual I believe. The NomCom always extends its deadlines. It's something to do with the mentality of the Internet community. Deadline, plus four days.
Kieren McCarthy
Kieren McCarthy said:
Readers should also note that this is a news brief not from CircleID but what has been reported today on the International Herald Tribune as indicated by the source above.
Thanks for the clarification note Kieren.
Oh sorry to wrongly malign you Ali, it's Victoria Shannon I should be asking where she came up with the angle.
I still think it's odd. Maybe the sub-editor wrote it.
Kieren
So Kieren, did the sub editor anticipate things and is ICANN going to extend the deadline again after Friday? :)
Hey Suresh,
Actually, I checked this out. I owe Victoria an apology. Apparently she had a phone interview with Vint and he talked about the concept of management of the Net becoming less fascinating for people, so that explains the intro, especially since the interview was tied in with the video interview and the NomCom process.
I think Vint's right in one way - the ideal position to get to would be when ICANN is so settled and trusted that its co-ordination role is of very limited interest to the wider world. But that's still a way off and why I wanted to get as many different people involved in this NomCom round was because with Vint leaving at the end of the year, I think the whole way the Board works may change. We shall see.
Anyway as far as I am aware, the NomCom deadline is only going to be extended once this year. The deadline was yesterday.
Kieren