back to article The sound and the fury and the kettle

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania. And Lithuania is north-east of Poland and underneath Finland. In an exhibition center on the outskirts of Vilnius, over the Neris river from the big, beautiful Vingis park, are currently the 1,000 or so people in this world who spend their lives obsessing about internet governance. I’m one …

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  1. Pete 2 Silver badge

    All the world's a stage

    and all the men and women merely players:

    And at this event, you were a player too. The reason the local leaders give speeches at things like this has nothing to do with the event. it's all about tomorrow's newspaper headlines. In that respect, what he says isn't for your consumption, either.

    So far as the disorganisation and in-fighting goes, that's all just part of the fun, too. NO committee effort that I've ever seen has been set up for the benefit of the cause it's supposed to serve - it's there for the players (yes, them again) to score points off each other and try for the position of "top dog". It also helps them gain recognition within the companies or administrations they work in where they can increase their own status by collecting more committee memberships than their colleagues. After all, once you get past a certain level recognition counts for more than a pay-rise anyway.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Sandbox

      There are, of course, those of us who know that the IGF is just a huge sandbox for the folks who like to talk about the internet (rather than actually help build/design/run it) to play in so they don't disturb us while we get on with the real job.

      I'm in Vilnius. I'm here mainly to make sure that the kids stay in the sandbox.

      Oh, and by the way, the internet connectivity here is dreadful.

  2. max allan

    Hotel / Prison ?

    My guess is that the hotel was a prison or something similar with lots of equal sized rooms and has been repurposed.

    Your room was one cell and the bathroom was the one next door.

    (or maybe an office block with lots of equal sized offices)

  3. Vaidotas Zemlys
    Happy

    yay

    As a local (i am lithuanian and i live in vilnius) į can confirm everything in this article. Yes 75 euros for the shuttle is a complete rip off, and decent lunch in the center of the town costs about 10-15 Litas. And yes the basketball thing was huge in Lithuania. Imagine English getting to the semis of the world cup, and multiply this by factor of 10. And yes prime-minister is used to being ignored, all country basicaly hates him, since economy is bad, and the guy is PR disaster.

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