Whois. What? Whois. That’s how we start the day. Whois is an online protocol that allows us to look up very basic information about a domain. Who owns it and some very basic configuration settings. It is a fundamental tool used in domain admin. And it’s going to be overhauled. This meeting was about how that might be done.

Next stop, back to Country Code matters with the ccNSO. This will again be the focus of the day. There’s some heated debate the structure of some newer stake holder bodies, I* and 1NET.  Controversially it’s suggested I* needs a different name. I thought that using an asterisk was against the acronym rules!

Several presentations follow. Virus detection in the Netherlands, Japan and Venezuela’s CC administration model, a report from .eu, and Sebastien Ducos of ARI presents their Australian survey. Later in the day the ccNSO council meets and again there is much discussion regarding 1NET.

There’s an African delegate here walking around in hotel pack silk baby blue pajamas. Complete with the squared fold creases. He tops off the outfit using the matching silk sleeve it comes in as a hat.

A couple of session drop ins round out the day. Freshen up at the hotel in readiness for tonight’s ICANN Gala, to be held at a huge technology theme park.

ICANN Galas have a reputation for varying enormously in quality, from dismal to spectacular. Tonight achieves a satisfactory score. Lively venue. Great local band that avoids tango clichés through an amazing female vocalist. Who was she? And terrific food. You guessed it, featuring grilled meat. Points lost for no beer. So I drink Chandon.