During the visit Rod attended a NomComm outreach event designed to encourage greater participation. See pictures below. Organised by the charming and effective Professor Xue Hong, Director of the Institute for Internet policy at Beijing Normal University and in the presence of Madam Qiheng Hu, President of the Internet Society of China. The event was very kindly sponsored by CNNIC, whose Director General, Dr. Wei Mao, also made a very positive contribution to our efforts to encourage greater Chinese participation in our multi-stakeholder model.

The event was both interesting and fun, bringing together a good cross section of the Internet ecosphere in China. Moreover Prof. Hong tells me she has, in her roll of NomComm coordinator, already received several indications of interest from potential volunteers.

Nick Thorne

(For those who haven’t come across him, Nick is International Relations Adviser to Rod in his role as President and CEO).

The voting procedure needed 60 percent of both of the new houses – contracted and non-contracted – to vote in favour. A first round vote with Chuck Gomes and Olga Cavalli saw Chuck Gomes win 100 percent of the contracted house vote and 50 percent of the non-contracted house; a second round with just Chuck on the ballot saw him win all but one Council votes.

Chuck will be helped by not one but two new vice-chairs under the new system: Olga Cavalli (interim) and Stephane van Gelder. Chuck mentioned in his acceptance speech that he intends to follow the same pattern that he himself had as vice-chair, where they are included in all decisions.

So congratulations new GNSO chair Chuck Gomes and congratulations to the new Council, which has been formed after years of hard work balancing the various stakeholders’ interests.

Outgoing chair Avri Doria was given a standing ovation on standing down and we captured the moment:

You can also see them and download them directly from Flickr by following this link. Click on the photo you want, click “All Sizes” and you are able to download it in a range of sizes.

There are also alot of other photos from Sydney. Go here to see all of them, split up by event. And please do add comments – particularly giving people’s names, as that will make the photos easier to find in future.

And of course there is the broader ICANN Flickr group that has lots of good photos stretching back in time. Enjoy.

Please note that these photos are published under a Creative Commons licence, more exactly an Attribution Non-Commercial licence. That means if you publish the photo anywhere you need to give credit to “ICANN”, and if you are a commercial organization you need to seek our permission first before publishing.

Incidentally, my personal favourite is probably where it looks as if Amadeu Abril i Abril has just thrown a huge right punch, missed, and his colleague is continuing on in conversation as if nothing happend.