One week later than foreseen, the ICANN Nominating Committee has announced the selected nominees.

Three of the nominations are so obvious one wonders why a nomcom was needed at all for them. I guess one has to thank people for their past involvement. There is a surprise, though. I am pleased to see Prof. Jon Bing at the GNSO council. And then, there is the old guard of Internet pioneers.

But, as Kieren McCarthy expressed it so well, a collection of ICANN insiders and Internet pioneers is not necessarily the best way to put new blood and ideas into ICANN.

For those who have not been elected, there are some lessons to be learned. The main one is that the candidate should not make his/her application public. The second is that you should be ready to lie when asked if you are a candidate. Advertising one’s candidature is “putting undue pressure” on the nomcom, or so I was told. In the end, and despite what the nomcom says, the secrecy is not such much to protect the candidate, but rather to protect the nomcom members for having to justify their choice.