IP: ALSC press release

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Esther Dyson <edyson () edventure com>

hard-fought.... FYI from Esther


> “GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY!”
>
> ICANN BOARD APPROVES INDIVIDUAL INTERNET USER PARTICIPATION, CALLS FOR
> ORGANIZATION OF AT-LARGE MEMEBERSHIP
>
> March 14, Accra, Ghana -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
> Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors approved a resolution during its
> meeting today that called for the creation of an At-Large mechanism for
> “meaningful, informed participation by Internet users,” as recommended by
> the At-Large Study Committee (ALSC).  Taking a critical step towards
> structuring participation and representation of individuals from
> throughout the diverse global Internet user communities ("At-Large
> constituency") within ICANN, the Board called upon the ICANN community to
> create an At-Large membership based on “bottom-up, self-organized, local
> Internet community” groups.
>
> "The ALSC is pleased the Board committed to a strong role for individual
> Internet users in ICANN and acknowledged the merits of our report," said
> Carl Bildt, ALSC Chair. "We worked to find a solution that ensures
> Internet users have a sustained role in the technical coordination of the
> Internet, and are gratified the Board has now recognized the Internet
> community’s bottom-up organizing activities.”
>
> In the resolution, the Board stated that it “wishes to move forward with
> energy and enthusiasm to build a meaningful structure for informed
> participation by the full range of Internet users, and seeks avenues to
> achieve these objectives that are bottom-up, self-organized, and
> self-sustaining.”
>
> ICANN is in the process of considering wholesale restructuring, and the
> resolution instructs the Board Committee on Restructuring to ensure that
> their ongoing efforts at crafting a blueprint for ICANN reform include
> “workable mechanisms and procedures that enable meaningful opportunities
> for participation by the full range of Internet users,” and “an
> appropriate role for those interests in ICANN's coordinating and
> management structures.”
>
> In its annual meeting in November, 2001, the Board formally accepted the
> ALSC’s final report as a basis for discussion and received in Accra the
> Committee’s “Implementation Report,” which provided details on the
> processes needed to implement the ALSC’s final report. The final report
> proposes a regionally based global framework for all interested
> individuals' structured participation in ICANN, focuses At-Large
> membership (an electorate) on an identifiable and vested community,
> provides a reasonable, initial mechanism for registration and
> self-funding, and grants At-Large members a proportionate responsibility
> for selecting ICANN's Board.  While the Board, today, made clear that
> there would be no direct elections to fill At-Large Board seats at this
> time, it left open the possibility of future At-Large elections.
>
> “We are still moving forward from where we were, although we have not yet
> reached our goal of regularly elected At-Large directors,” said Esther
> Dyson, an ALSC member and former chairman of ICANN. “Now the At-Large
> Membership has the challenge ­ and responsibility ­ of meeting the Board’s
> call for informed, active participation… which we hope will lead to
> issue-oriented, transparent elections.”
>
> The ALSC's reports are available on the Internet (at www.atlargestudy.org)
> and the Board’s resolution is available at www.icann.org.
> .
> ABOUT THE ALSC
> The ALSC is an independent Committee created by ICANN earlier this year to
> provide recommendations to ICANN's Board on how to structure the diverse
> global Internet community's participation within ICANN. The ALSC is
> conducting an aggressive outreach, discussion, research, and
> consensus-building campaign that will culminate with the submission of a
> final report to the Board in November. In addition to Carl Bildt, the ALSC
> includes Charles Costello, Pierre Dandjinou, Esther Dyson, Olivier Iteanu,
> Ching-Yi Liu, Thomas Niles, Oscar Robles, and Pindar Wong. Biographies of
> these individuals, and Information on the ALSC, can be found at
> www.atlargestudy.org.
>
> ABOUT ICANN
> ICANN is a technical coordination body for the Internet. Created in
> October 1998 by a broad coalition of the Internet's business, technical,
> academic, and user communities, ICANN is assuming responsibility for a set
> of technical functions previously performed under U.S. government contract
> by IANA and other groups. Specifically, ICANN coordinates the assignment
> of identifiers that must be globally unique for the Internet to function:
> Internet domain names, IP address numbers, and protocol parameter and port
> numbers. In addition, ICANN coordinates the stable operation of the
> Internet's root server system. As a non-profit, private-sector
> corporation, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of
> the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation
> of global Internet communities; and to developing policy through
> private-sector, bottom-up, consensus-based means. ICANN welcomes the
> participation of any interested Internet user, business, or organization.
>
> CONTACT
> Denise Michel
> +1 310 823 9358
> dmichel () atlargestudy org
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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Esther Dyson            Always make new mistakes!
chairman, EDventure Holdings
writer, Release 3.0 (on Website below)
edyson () edventure com
1 (212) 924-8800    --   fax  1 (212) 924-0240
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New York, NY 10011 USA
http://www.edventure.com




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