To Address ICANN San Francisco Meeting — Bill Clinton

Former President Clinton set to keynote next ICANN meeting.

[Update: ICANN confirms that Clinton has accepted an offer to speak at the meeting but the contract is still being finalized. It also states that his speaking fee will be covered by a targeted sponsorship.] You might still call it a rumor, but Antony Van Couvering of Minds + Machines states he has confirmed with “A personal source close to Bill Clinton” that President Clinton will keynote March’s ICANN meeting in San Francisco.

(Side note: I’m kind of surprised this comes from a source close to Clinton as opposed to a source close to ICANN. I guess Van Couvering has friends in high places.)

Clinton may be somewhat controversial assuming he commands his usual high price tag. But with VeriSign tossing $500,000 into the ring you could argue that VeriSign is footing the bill instead of domain name registrants…but then again VeriSign gets its money from domain registrants…oh, I could drag this on and on.

The Clinton Administration created ICANN back in 1998.

With Clinton on the docket and the event taking place in the heart of the tech world, you can expect a lot of media attention for this event.