---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 9:02 PM
Subject: Issue with the Regional ICANN meeting in Sofia
Association UNINET
REF. ID. 10/2008
Dear Dr. Twomey and Mr. Thrush,
We are a Bulgarian association representing part of the local Internet
user and business community, aimed at the introduction of Bulgarian
IDN domains.
We would like to inform you that we have been denied participation in
the upcoming regional ccTLD meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria. (8 – 10
September) (please see attached letter). The Russian organizers of the
meeting held in Bulgaria explained to us that the reason is that our
organization is neither a ccTLD registry nor a registrar.
We would like to express our astonishment with this case, because we
thought that all ICANN meetings are always open – we have participated
in former ICANN meetings, like in Los Angeles, without any problems
and we will participate in Cairo again. We have understood that ICANN
meetings and ICANN-supported meetings are open to all. We are aware at
a similar regional meeting in the Middle East co-organized by ICANN
together with a local ccTLD anyone was allowed to participate.
Additionally, we are aware from the speaker and invitee lists of the
event, a number of entities that do not qualify as neither a ccTLD
registry or a registrar (for example Verisign, Affilias, ComTel,
ENISA, etc.) are able to participate.
We would like to ask you whether is an ICANN policy to organize also
non-open meetings and deny participation of the local Internet
community, considering that the meeting is held in Bulgaria. We
believed that the ICANN meetings are supposed to be for the whole
Internet community.
If we are unable to get a response in a timely manner, because the
meeting is next week, we will have little choice but to bring this up
with the ICANN ombudsman and the wider ICANN community.
Best regards,
Iliya Bazlyankov
Board chairman
Association UNINET
Phone: +359 2 942 98 00
Mobile: +359 89 999 16 90
Fax: +359 2 943 38 02