Author: Dee Inez

Dee Inez is an independent observer and commentator on the Internet industry, specifically its human components.

Dee first came to prominence for her controversial biography of Jon Postel entitled 'Weirdy Beirdy'. She has also penned such titles as 'Paranoid delusions of grandeur, an illustrated guide to ICANN's inner workings', 'Whereas... A lawyer's guide' and 'Who's that lunatic at the mic? How Internet policy is really decided'.

Known for her witty ripostes and shameless gossiping, Dee can usually be found handing over Polaroids from the last Internet conference in return for information about the inner workings of the Internet policy and governance organizations.

Most recent posts | Most popular posts

Gossip
15 May 2012
The genius of glitch

Lovin' this new "glitch" thing. It's a fab way of making light of a tricky situation. It makes you wonder why others don't adopt it as a way of lightening the mood.

For example, ever since this global financial glitch started in 2008, everyone's been moping around, unhappy with their lot. Which is a lot of fuss for a glitch. Cheer up, it's only money!

To get a better sense of the inspiration behind the glitch moniker, I asked ICANN for information about how it came about. As one of the most transparent and accountability organizations the world has ever known, the legal team were only too keen to oblige and happily released a transcript of their discussion held at their headquarters in Marina de Lay just days after their application system was pulled offline.
Gossip
20 December 2011
ICANN legal team disappears up own [bleep]

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers," wrote Shakespeare in Henry VI, although he wisely put the words in the mouth of Dick the butcher.

Dick's solution must have seemed pretty attractive to ICANN's communications team earlier this week when it's first podcast in over nine months was duly censored by its legal department for containing the word... well, I can hardly bring myself to say it... the word "Nike".

What's even worse is that the name of the company is used in the most damaging of contexts: talking about shoes. And Nike is a shoe company. You can only imagine the fallout had it been allowed to go ahead.

And so ICANN's crack legal team, who have nothing better to do than read and now listen to every single piece of information that the organization produces and beat it to death did the logical thing and bleeped out the word, leading to the unintentionally hilarious clip you can listen to at the bottom of the page.
Gossip
30 November 2011
Dear minister, here is the process we followed to build a complaint about our stay in a hotel in your country

Update: ICANN has pulled the complaint letter from its website. Another few hours well spent. Download it here.

One of the documents doing the rounds at the recent ICANN meeting in Dakar was an online survey about one of the hotels that community members - in this case the At Large community - were staying it.

By all accounts, the Hotel des Almadies was not an experience anyone would willingly pay for, in Dakar or anywhere else. A huge number of At Large people complained and were met with a variety of excuses but seemingly little action.
Gossip
13 October 2011
Is Beckstrom tiring of his one-man world tour?

So you've got $400,000 and four months to spread global awareness of new Internet extensions. Do you...

  • Hold a competition with big prizes?
  • Start an online advertising campaign?
  • Provide materials to the 2,000 international attendees at your meetings and get them to spread the word?
  • Join up with companies already promoting the extensions?
  • All of the above?

Or... do you think like a starfish, scrap all this proven marketing nonsense, and spend the money sending your lame-duck CEO on a five-star world tour so he can spend a few hours in total on stage soothing his bruised ego?

It's a no-brainer! Literally.

But, what's this? Has even this extravagant gold-lined exit started to tire ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom?
Gossip
16 June 2011
Have a drink in Singapore - just don't expect ICANN to pick up the tab

As attendees to ICANN's meeting in Singapore this week have been discovering to their horror, the province has some very strict laws, particularly when it comes to cigarettes, alcohol and, yes, chewing gum.

What most of them have yet to realize though is the cost of getting hold of any of their usual vices once they land. The famous Singapore Sling, invented at the Raffles Hotel attached to the venue will set you back a not-inconsiderate $20.

But it's not just the famous drinks: alcoholic beverages are notoriously expensive in Singapore. And even when you see that $6 beer, you still have to account for the 10 percent service charge and the 7 percent Goods & Services Tax.

Now you would think that one tactic may be to find an ICANN staffer or Board member and get them to buy a round of drinks. After all, this is the meeting where the organization is going to have a "really big party" according to its chairman.

Not only that but within just a few months, the organization can expect to rake in over $90 million from gTLD application fees. Money it still hasn't told anyone what it intends to do with. So why not at least get $20 of your $185,000 refunded in a glass.