Ask ICANN a question during the Mexico meeting!

[GeorgeK]

ICANN has opened up a Question Box for the Mexico City meeting, see:

http://www.icann.org/en/announcement...11feb09-en.htm

It'll be interesting to see whether they respond with more than just canned non-answers given that they have the time to prepare. Since we're allowed to submit more than one question, here's a few I submitted (with perhaps more to come once the next new gTLD Draft Guidebook is published). If others submit questions feel free to post them below, and we can see whether ICANN does in fact answer them in Mexico. Questions were limited to 30 words.

1. Why did ICANN use its emergency reserve fund to speculate in financial markets, losing a reported $4.6 million? Emergency reserves are supposed to be kept in risk free liquid securities.

2. In ICANN's Form 990, Paul Twomey's compensation was adjusted upwards to reflect the declining US dollar. Now that the US dollar has soared, will his compensation be adjusted downward accordingly?

3. Why is the Board Finance Committee planning an expensive hedging program, when it is possible to conduct most of its business in US dollars, shifting currency risks to suppliers?

4. One million/year is spent on telephone costs. What's being done to minimize that cost, in particular competitive tenders by suppliers, etc? What's the cost per minute of conference calls currently?

5. Why was ICANN staff researching George Kirikos' political views on President Barack Obama? (as was verified by Apache webserver referrer logs) Does ICANN keep a dossier on every community participant?

6. Why does ICANN use For-Profit companies as "comparables" in its compensation, when it purports to be a Non-Profit? Given staff's job security compared to the private-sector, isn't this unwise overspending?

7. A federal court in California awarded Verizon $33.15 million against OnlineNIC for cybersquatting. What's ICANN doing to protect registrants in the event of registrar failure? Are other registrars vulnerable?

[mulligan]

4. One million/year is spent on telephone costs. What's being done to minimize that cost, in particular competitive tenders by suppliers, etc? What's the cost per minute of conference calls currently?

Question asked:

Can you disclose whether the company currently supplying your telephone/video conference services have an affiliation with any ICANN employee in any shape, manner or form?

[Rubber Duck]

Simply:

When are you going to get your heads out of your arses and deliver on some of the promises you have been making for the best part of a decade?