SCN: Net elections

[Steve]

x-no-archive: yes

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(Jeri Clausing, NY Times)---Hoping to raise public awareness and 
participation in an international election to help administer the 
Internet, public interest groups on Wednesday launched a voter 
registration and education campaign to recruit what it called "Cyber 
Citizens." The campaign urges Internet users to join the Internet 
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which was selected 
by the Clinton Administration in 1998 to take over administration of 
the network's addressing, or so-called domain name system.  

The nonprofit group is holding its first global elections this fall. 
Anyone age 16 or older with an Internet address is eligible to join 
the group. Those who register by July 31 will be able to vote in the 
first election.  

The "Become a Cyber Citizen" effort was launched by the Center for 
Democracy and Technology, Common Cause and the American 
Library Association, three groups that have been working with Icann 
to try to ensure that individual Internet users are properly 
represented on the board.  

While representatives of business and technical groups have 
already elected nine board members for Icann, the group this fall 
will hold elections for the first five of what ultimately will be nine at-
large members, who will represent Internet users in general in Icann 
policy making.  

Although Icann defines itself as a standards-setting body with a role 
limited to the technical functions of the Internet, it has already made 
rules to protect trademark interests from so-called cybersquatters, 
or domain name speculators. And in their next meeting, scheduled 
to begin July 13 in Japan, the group is expected to begin moving on 
plans to add new top-level domains to supplement the popular .com, 
.net and .org suffixes.  

Jerry Berman, executive director of CDT, said the goal of the 
campaign is to educate Internet users about Icann and how the 
group's decisions can effect them.  

He compared Icann's role to one of being able to "rearrange the 
streets of a city. Because they are registering our identity. All of us 
have property, an identity stake in our domain name. ... They are 
essentially effecting what is going to be a critical identity and 
property right of every person in the 21st Century."  

And Berman warned that there is a risk that ICANN might some day 
take on greater policy-making powers beyond its current technical 
role.  

"Internet users need to exercise their right to vote to ensure that 
ICANN's decisions are in the best interests of the greater Internet," 
he said.  

CDT, Common Cause and the ALA said they would be alerting their 
members and the companies and groups they work with in hopes 
that word of the registration drive will spread. Any company or group 
wanting to post information on the campaign is welcome to copy the 
CDT page, Berman said.  

Additionally, the ALA said it would be urging librarians around the 
country to post the campaign information on the first page that 
Internet users see when using public computers.  

Although Icann's relationship with the three groups has been 
contentious since they issued a report that forced the board to make 
the at-large elections more open, the group's president, Mike 
Roberts, said Icann welcomes help with outreach.  

In addition to Icann's own voter registration efforts that more 
specifically target the members of more traditional Internet 
associations, some countries, like Germany and Japan, have 
implemented aggressive campaigns to get their Internet users 
signed up.  

Roberts said about 20,000 people have already registered, an 
updated numbers with country specific information should be posted 
on the Icann Web site this week  

During the first round of elections, five directors representing 
geographic regions will be chosen. Icann has proposed that people 
must vote for candidates from their region. The election rules are 
expected to finalized next month at the board's meeting in Japan.  

CDT and the other groups said they plan to attend that meeting and 
to continue monitoring the election process.  

"We recognize that Icann is an experiment of sorts," said Scott 
Harshbarger, president of Common Cause. "But they are trying to 
manage a worldwide resource. That is too important to leave to a 
body that is not accountable to anyone."  

Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company 

Web sites:

Center for Democracy and Technology:  www.cdt.org

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers:
http://www.icann.org/

Common Cause:  www.commoncause.org

American Library Association:  www.ala.org






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