Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2001 17:54:11 -0700
From: quixote@goodnet.com ("Andreasen")
Subject: FW: [Lis-LEAF] Policy Post 7.05: DOMAIN NAME GROUP MEETS IN STOCKHOLM
To: rsrchsoc@ionet.net ("John Wilde"), r.destephens@att.net ("Rick DeStephens"), randerson22@home.com ("Bob Anderson"), pls@thekeep.com ("Paul Schauble"), pgammill@home.com ("Powell Gammill"), mhorning@eskimo.com ("Mark & Jen Horning"), kvc@tima.com ("Kent & Fran"), >, jsharpe@ix.netcom.com ("Jim Sharpe"), >, FreemanAZ@aol.com ("Mike Renzulli"), ernesthancock@home.com ("Ernie & Donna"), eichraoren@yahoo.com ("James Eric Andreasen"), Drray4321@cs.com ("Ray Price"), >, cory_brickner@yahoo.com ("Cory & Lilach Brickner"), cartero@nguworld.com ("Mike & Tracy")
Take a look.
Liz
-----Original Message-----
From: R. J. Tavel, JD [mailto:freedomlaw@iquest.net]
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2001 4:51 PM
To: Lis-Leaf@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Lis-LEAF] Policy Post 7.05: DOMAIN NAME GROUP MEETS IN
STOCKHOLM
CDT POLICY POST Volume 7, Number 5, June 8, 2001
A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL
LIBERTIES ONLINE
from
THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY
CONTENTS:
(1) DOMAIN NAME GROUP MEETS IN STOCKHOLM; PUBLIC ROLE,
STRUCTURE DEBATED
(2) RESEARCH TEAM'S INTERIM REPORT CALLS FOR STRONG
PUBLIC ROLE IN ICANN
(3) ACADEMICS, NGOS URGE SWIFT ACTION BY ICANN BOARD
(4) OTHER ICANN ACTIVITIES IN STOCKHOLM
(1) DOMAIN NAME GROUP MEETS IN STOCKHOLM; PUBLIC ROLE,
STRUCTURE DEBATED
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN), the non-profit group that coordinates aspects of the domain
name system and other key Internet technical functions, held its
quarterly meeting in Stockholm this week. Major topics discussed at
the meeting included the ongoing debate over the public's role in
ICANN, issues regarding ICANN's structure and mission as overseer
of an authoritative root, and the future of the well-known .org domain.
(2) RESEARCH TEAM'S INTERIM REPORT CALLS FOR STRONG
PUBLIC ROLE IN ICANN
The NGO and Academic ICANN Study (NAIS), a coalition of
researchers from around the world including CDT, has released its
first report on the role of the public in ICANN. Though preliminary in
nature, the report finds that ICANN should include a strong measure
of public input in its activities.
ICANN is the non-profit organization responsible for the technical
management of some of theInternet's most important resources.
Most notably, ICANN manages the Domain Name System that
converts computer addresses like 206.112.85.50 into
easily-remembered strings like www.cdt.org. Because ICANN's
decisions affect the whole Internet, CDT and other organizations have
strongly pressed it to include the interests of Internet users in its
decision-making processes.
In its Interim Report, NAIS examined global experiences with last
year's online election of five "At-Large" representativs to the
nineteen-member ICANN Board of Directors. The 130-page Interim
Report includes local perspectives on the election process from each
of ICANN's five geographic regions, and the findings were presented
at a public workshop in Stockholm on June 2. Also published was a
ten-page Executive Summary describing the Interim Report's major
findings, available in English and translated into French, Spanish,
Italian, and Chinese.
The NAIS team will publish its Final Report on the public role in
ICANN at ICANN's September meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay. The
study is designed to parallel ICANN's own At-Large Study Committee,
which will report to the ICANN board this fall. NAIS is fully
independent both of the ALSC and of ICANN.
Electronic copies of the Interim Report, the Executive Summary, and
information about the NAIS project are available at:
http://www.naisproject.org/
(3) ACADEMICS, NGOS URGE SWIFT ACTION BY ICANN BOARD
At ICANN's four-day public meeting in Stockholm, CDT and
representatives from NAIS emphasized the importance of rapid
action by the ICANN Board of Directors to secure a system of public
representation. Finding a role for the public voice is one of ICANN's
highest priorities, yet, with the corporation now in its third year of
operation, ICANN has yet to formally establish the rights and
responsibilities of the Internet public in ICANN's operation. In fact,
four seats on the Board originally reserved for "At-Large" Directos
continue to be occupied by unelected individuals chosen at the time
of ICANN's incorporation.
The Board is currently scheduled to take action on these issues at its
Annual Meeting in November 2001, but there have been indications
that some Directors are considering delay. Moreover, the current five
"At-Large" Directors' terms of office will expire in November 2002. It is
feared that further delay could jeopardize ICANN's ability to
implement a selection system for directors in a timely way. A major
finding of the NAIS report was that many were frustrated by election
problems and a lack of outreach in last year's election, which were in
turn caused in part by the tight timetable for implementing that
election.
ICANN can only survive as an open and transparent organization,
accountable to the Internet users and other interests affected by its
decisions. It should resist the temptation to further delay fulfilling its
responsibilities to the Internet community as a whole. CDT looks
forward to working with the ICANN Board, staff, and all members of
the ICANN community to bring about responsible reform in a timely
fashion.
(4) OTHER ICANN ACTIVITIES IN STOCKHOLM
In other issues at the ICANN meeting in Stockholm, a group of
representatives from the country-code Top-Level Domains
(ccTLDs--the groups that administer country-specific Internet
domains ending in ".uk" or ".jp" rather than ".com" or ".org") informed
the ICANN Board that they would no longer participate in ICANN's
Domain Name Supporting Organization, one of ICANN's major
policy-making bodies. The ccTLDs provide a significant portion of
ICANN's operational budget; their dissatisfaction with one of the core
elements of the ICANN structure points to a need for substantial
reform in ICANN's basic structure.
The three Supporting Organizations (S.0.s) are intended to be
ICANN's main policy-generating bodies. They attempt to foster rough
consensus in support of ICANN policies by bringing awide group of
technical, commercial, and non-profit stakeholders together for
discussion and debate. However, the S.O. model--particularly in the
case of the Domain Name Supporting Organization--has left many
feeling disfranchised from the ICANN Board's important decisions.
The ccTLDs' frustration with the S.O. structure is emblematic of the
need for far-reaching ICANN reform that will make the organization
more inclusive of all of the Internet's diverse communities.
Also in Stockholm, ICANN took the first step towards finding a new
administrator for the popular .org domain space. Under the terms of
a recent contract renegotiation with .org's current administrator,
VeriSign, ICANN has been tasked with identifying or creating an
entity--possibly a non-profit organization--to operate the domain
when VeriSign's contract expires on 31 December 2002. In
Stockholm, ICANN requested that the Domain Name Supporting
Organization craft a recommendation on the matter for submission to
the Board by mid-October 2001. Among the items at stake is a
million fund earmarked for use by a non-profit .org operator.
Finally, the ICANN Board also approved the corporation's budget for
fiscal year 2001-2002. ICANN's total operating budget increased
19.2% to about million, but the budget was criticized by many for
failing to include a line item for expenses associated with
implementing a system of public representation in the early part of
next year. At the meeting, ICANN President/CEO Stuart Lynn indicated
that such expenses, if necessary, would come from ICANN's
administrative budget and operating reserve.
For more information about ICANN, visit CDT's ICANN page at:
http://www.cdt.org/dns/icann/
Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be found
at
http://www.cdt.org/.
This document may be redistributed freely in full or linked to
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_7.05.shtml.
Excerpts may be re-posted with prior permission of ari@cdt.org
Policy Post 7.05 Copyright 2001 Center for Democracy and
Technology
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