Domain Name Wire

Colombia Faces Uphill Battle to Host ICANN Meeting in December

ICANN still considering options for December meeting.

ICANN plans to hold a meeting in Latin America this December, but it hasn’t yet named a location. Colombia is frequently mentioned as a candidate, and the country’s Minister of Information and Communications Technologies has sent a letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom restating his country’s interest in hosting the event.

On the surface, Colombia might be a good candidate. It’s getting a lot of press as it liberalizes its .co country code domain name. But the negative community reaction due to safety concerns during this year’s event in Nairobi, Kenya, is likely causing the ICANN staff to great consternation. Although the situation in Colombia is much improved over the past decade, it is still a relatively dangerous country with rival factions such as FARC and ELN battling and narco-terrorism is still prevalent in small towns and rural areas.

An ICANN event would likely be held in a large city, which probably reduces the chances of being kidnapped. The risks are somewhat similar to Mexico City, where ICANN held a meeting last year, where ATM and taxi cab robberies are fairly common. I haven’t heard of any major security incidents from either the Mexico City or Nairobi meetings.

Will ICANN play it safe to avoid having many delegates stay home? Or will having an event in Belgium in between the Kenya and potential Colombia event be enough of a breather?

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Related posts:

1. ICANN Considers Security Concerns for Kenya Meeting
2. ICANN To Hold Pre-Conference Security Calls on Nairobi Meeting
3. ICANN Meeting Conference Center Target of Bomb Threat

Tags: icann meeting, Policy & Law