Back in the late 80s and early 90s, when I was working on NFS, Windows Sockets, and other TCP/IP related stuff, I would often run into Karl Auerbach, network tools wizard and latterly ICANN member-at-large. Many of our encounters took place in the NOC during that strange, timeless period the night before the opening of each Networld+Interop show. The first Interop took place in San Jose, but as it grew, and merged with Networld, it moved to the Moscone Center in San Francisco and eventually headed off into the desert at Las Vegas. Over time it went the way of all trade shows, and puffed itself up into a content-free carnival, whereupon I stopped attending and lost touch with Karl.

Today a serendipitous blog chain led me to the following gem, reproduced in full:

CaveBear Blog: Sartre meets ICANN
I notice that ICANN issued a press release with the title:
ICANN successfully concludes Cape Town Meetings
Which makes me wonder: What would an unsucessful conclusion be?  Would the ICANN board and staff have to be trapped forever in the meeting room like the characters in Sartre’s play No Exit?

It’s an attractive proposition, isn’t it?