Server troubles, interviews and GigaNets

I feared as much: the heavy CPU demand of the IGF2006.info site – interaction comes with a cost – has left the hosting deal I bought for it struggling.

After falling over twice already today, a very helpful but somewhat sceptical Chengetai Masango from the UN Secretariat has agreed to let us host it on the more robust UN server (set up originally for WGIG). Jeremy Malcolm is trying to achieve just that as I write this.

Meanwhile, the IGF is revving its engines. Guests have start pouring into the hotel, making a walk through the lobby an interesting mix of reminscence and chit-chat. The GigaNet academic conference has been running all day in the one of the workshop rooms and has been viewed as a success, although the 10-minutes per speaker left many feeling rushed, and the questions had to be heavily restricted.

This being an Internet meeting, it was with some inevitability that there were no power sockets to be seen and the wireless Net access failed.

While all this was going on, however, I managed to grab Nitin Desai and Markus Kummer for a couple of interviews. Markus concentrated on the main problem at the moment – namely, the fact that only 800 people can get in the main room for the opening ceremony tomorrow, and 1,500 people are expected to want to attend. This has caused all sorts of late-minute rushes, with an allocation system designed and implemented on the hoof.

Inevitably, this has caused a lot of irritation, especially when civil society has only been allocated 100 seats. Fortunately for me at least, I have a VIP pass – a very rare, almost unheard of feat for a journalist at an event with governments – so I get in anyway. At least that’s the theory.

The reason for the problem is that the IGF has proved to be more than twice as popular as everyone had expected it to be. The calculations were 200-300 people turned up to WGIG meetings, around 600 turn up to ICANN meetings, so the IGF put a rough estimate at 800. Not only that but there wasn’t much of a choice anyway, the Divani Apollon was the hotel that fitted the bill (the first choice was turned down exactly for the capacity problem), and its biggest room can seat what the hotel owners say is 1,200 – but with the Greek prime minister and dozens of high-ranking officials all sat in the room, the security men have refused to allow more than 800 in at any one time.

You *know* that none of this will matter to the people not in the room though.

Nitin Desai’s interview was – as it always is – an interesting, reflective and wise review of the IGF, its aims, its development over time, and what good will come out of all this. It is like a Town Hall meeting, is his analogy. It doesn’t decide, make binding decisions on what happens, but municipal government turns up to Town Hall meetings to hear what people think and then makes decisions based on that.

One of the criticisms of the IGF is that it isn’t decision-making, but the great advantage of this – Mr Desai notes – is that discussion isn’t stilted, because no one has a stance they are seeking to push.

Anyway, when I have a minute I will do a more stuctured news story outlining the IGF before it officially opens tomorrow.