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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published
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Africa: Democracy on Internet
Africa: Democracy on Internet
Date distributed (ymd): 000726
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +political/rights+ +economy/development+
Summary Contents:
This posting contains an action alert from the Association for
Progressive Communications and additional background information on
the upcoming on-line elections for at-large members of the board of
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
One at-large board member will be elected from each of five
regions: Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America/Caribbean,
and North America. Anyone with an e-mail address and web access can
register to vote as an at-large member, but the deadline for
registration is July 31, 2000.
By July 19 the total registered was 52,652 people; by July 25, the
number had more than doubled to 118,189. Only 659 had registered
from African countries.
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Association for Progressive Communications
(http://www.apc.org)
ICANN & CIVIL SOCIETY
Who controls the Internet? ICANN wants to.
Register to vote in the ICANN elections by July 31 and ....
Promote Democracy in Cyberspace.
What is ICANN?
ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is
an NGO which was created after calls by the US government for a
body to be set up to administer policy for the Internet name and
address system (DNS).
Why Should I Care about ICANN?
Until now, ICANN has been dominated by commercial and technical
interests. Such a homogeneous body has every potential to become a
'World Trade Organization in cyberspace', defining policy and
legislating changes to the Internet which will affect us all, and
which favour big business over individuals. Already certain
decisions taken by ICANN have clearly demonstrated this bias.
Now, for the first time, ICANN is opening up and accepting five
non-technical, non-commercial Board directors; one from five of the
world's regions. These new directors will be elected by ICANN's 'at
large' members. Anyone can register to become an 'at large' member.
Register to vote, so together, we can get pro-social justice,
pro-development candidates from civil society elected to the ICANN
Board.
If You Are from Latin America or Africa..
You have very good chances of getting a civil society candidate
elected to the ICANN Board. In Africa and Latin America relatively
few people have registered yet, so registrations by
pro-development, pro-social justice voters improve chances of
getting at least one civil society member on the ICANN Board.
How Can I Promote Democracy in Cyberspace?
[APIC Note: Due to much higher registration than expected, response
time from the ICANN registration database has been slow. You may
experience delays. If these delays make it impossible for you to
register, please send a message to the contact person for ICANN
at-large membership, Pam Brewster ([email protected]).
Ask for an extension of the time for registration. Send a copy of
your message to Andrew McLaughlin of ICANN ([email protected]) and
to the Chair of the Membership Implementation Task Force for
Africa, Pierre Dandjinou ([email protected]).]
- Vote pro-civil society/pro-development at the ICANN Board
elections: Candidates are being nominated currently. Voting takes
place in October 2000.
- After *you* register to vote, send this message to five friends
encouraging *them* to register.
- For more information write to [email protected] and write "Open
up ICANN" in the subject line, or visit APC Internet Rights:
http://www.apc.org/english/rights/
ICANN Press Release
ICANN Creates At Large Election and Nominating Committees
Marina del Rey, CA, USA, 9 May 2000 The Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced the appointment
of Election and Nominating Committees that will play key roles in
the process by which five At Large Directors of ICANN will be
selected later this year through a global online election.
The At Large Members of ICANN are individuals who have indicated an
interest in participating in ICANN. They will vote to select five
Directors for the ICANN Board, one from each of five defined
geographic regions (Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America/
Caribbean, and North America). With nearly 15,000 applications so
far, ICANN's At Large Membership outreach effort has been greeted
with notable enthusiasm among the members of the global Internet
community.
Today's announcement marks the beginning of the first phase of this
selection process. The Nominating Committee will nominate a set of
At Large candidates. At the same time, ICANN's Election Committee
will solicit and select an outside vendor for the online voting
system, and complete detailed recommendations for ICANN's campaign
and voting procedures, including independent oversight and
monitoring.
Following this first phase, there will be:
- a petition period, in which candidates who were not nominated by
the Nominating Committee can seek a place on the ballot by
attracting a minimum threshold of support from At Large Members in
her/his region via online petition;
- a campaign period; and
- the vote of the At Large Members.
About the Election Committee
The Election Committee will develop detailed recommendations on the
ICANN election procedures, subject to public review and comment
prior to ICANN's next meetings in July. The Election Committee will
propose the rules that will apply in this election for campaigning,
voting, measures to prevent vote fraud, and independent oversight
and monitoring. The Committee will solicit proposals from
third-party vendors of online voting systems, and will recommend a
vendor to the Board. To read more about the Election Committee, its
charter, and its members, please see http://www.icann.org/elcom/.
The Committee's membership includes experts in electronic voting,
Internet infrastructure and security and election oversight and
monitoring. The members of the Election Committee are:
Greg Crew-Chair (Australia)
Charles Costello (United States)
Lorrie Faith Cranor (United States)
Patrik Filtstrom (Sweden)
Ken Fockler (Canada)
Hans Kraaijenbrink (Netherlands)
Nguyen Huu Dong (Mexico)
About the Nominating Committee
The Nominating Committee will identify and nominate outstanding
candidates to stand for election to the ICANN Board. This Committee
will actively seek input (such as recommendations and expressions
of interest) from all members of the Internet community. Procedures
will be announced shortly. The Nominating Committee will complete
its work by the end of July, after which the election process will
proceed to the petition, campaign, and voting phases. For more
information on the Nominating Committee, please see
http://www.icann.org/nomcom/.
The members of the Nominating Committee are:
Linda Wilson - Chair (United States)
Jean-Francois Abramatic (France)
Dr. Mads Bryde Andersen (Denmark)
John Klensin (United States)
Jun Murai (Japan)
Charles Musisi (Uganda)
Alejandro Pisanty (Mexico)
About ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is
a non-profit, international corporation formed in September 1998 to
oversee a select set of Internet technical management functions
currently managed by the U.S. Government, or by its contractors and
volunteers. Specifically, ICANN is assuming responsibility for
coordinating the management of the domain name system (DNS), the
allocation of IP address space, the assignment of protocol
parameters, and the management of the root server system.
Ccontact:
Pam Brewster
415-902-1158 - mobile or 415-923-1660 x119 - voice;
[email protected]
ICANN Membership Implementation Task Force
http://www.icann.org/at-large/mitf.htm
AFRICA Task Group
[email protected]
Pierre Dandjinou (Benin) [Chair][email protected]
Mohammad-Sani Abdulai Ghana) [email protected]
Silvio Cabral Almada (Angola) [email protected]
Zakaria Amar (Mauritania) [email protected]
Clement Dzidonu (Ghana) [email protected]
Philip Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie Fergusson (United Kingdom/Sierra
Leone/Nigeria) [email protected]
Sondlo Leonard Mhlaba (United States / Zimbabwe)
[email protected]
Andrew Muigai (Kenya) [email protected]
George Nkusi (Rwanda) [email protected]
Victor Nwankwo (Nigeria) [email protected]
Alioune Traore� (Mali) [email protected]
Internet Service Providers Associations (ISPA), South Africa
ISPA Advisory 4:
ICANN - A Primer
[Excerpts: full text available at
http://www.ispa.org.za/advisory4.htm]
By: Tracy Cohen
...
Structure
ICANN proposes numerous organisational units and include a Board of
Directors, three supporting organisations (SO), multiple councils,
multiple constituencies, a Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)
and various others. This note is concerned with the Board and the
SO's.
ICANN's Board of Directors is comprised of 19 volunteer members.
(There are nine At-Large Directors, nine selected by ICANN's three
supporting organisations, and the President/CEO (ex officio)). The
Board was chosen by ICANN's three supporting organisations - the
Domain Name, Address and Protocol Supporting Organisations which
collectively represent a broad cross-section of the global
Internet's business, technical, academic, and user communities. The
"At Large Membership" is a recent addition to the structure, which
will be responsible for choosing At-Large Directors to replace
those on the initial governing board. By November 2000, the first
round of At Large elections will choose five At Large Directors.
The "At Large Membership" is envisaged as a new way in which
Internet users from all over the world will participate directly in
the ICANN process and policy making structures. At Large Members
will receive regular news, updates, and announcements about ICANN
activities and policy initiatives. The At Large Members of ICANN
are any individuals who have indicated an interest in participating
in ICANN. They will vote to select five Directors for the ICANN
Board, one from each of five defined geographic regions (Africa,
Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America/Caribbean, and North America).
...
Due to external funding, the initial launch of ICANN's At Large
Membership program does not require membership dues. Thus, there is
no cost to become an At Large member of ICANN. In order to ensure
that the At Large Membership is broadly representative of the
global diversity of the Internet, ICANN has created a Membership
Implementation Task Force to lead its worldwide outreach and
recruitment efforts. The ICANN board of Directors approved
resolutions establishing the principles of the initial At Large
Program. As anyone can join the At Large membership, its election
principles have become the focus of many debates over the last few
months. A recent coalition of civil society groups have started an
initiative to ensure that the election principles espouse values of
transparency and accountability, and take strong note of the
constituencies of developing countries.
Supporting Organisations
The ICANN Bylaws provide for three Supporting Organisations (SOs)
to assist, review and develop recommendations on Internet policy
and structure within three specialised areas. The SOs help to
promote the development of Internet policy and encourage diverse
and international participation in the technical management of the
Internet.
The three supporting organisations are:
- The Address Supporting Organisation (ASO) concerned with the
system of IP addresses, such as 128.9.128.127.
- The Domain Name Supporting Organisation (DNSO) concerned with
the domain name system (DNS), the system of names commonly used to
identify Internet locations and resources. By bringing together
parties participating in the operation and use of the DNS, the DNSO
seeks to formulate and recommend consensus-based policies
concerning the configuration and operation of the DNS. Under the
bylaws, the DNSO consists of:
-
A Names Council (NC) responsible for the management of the
consensus-building process of the DNSO. The NC consists of
representatives selected by each of seven constituencies. The
constituencies are self-organised and determine their own criteria
for participation.
The current constituencies are:
- CcTLD registries. This constituency consists of managers of
country-code (i.e. two-letter) top-level domains.
- Commercial and business entities. This constituency represents
the views and interests of those stakeholders who use the Internet
to conduct their business or part of it.
- gTLD registries. This constituency consists of present operators
of gTLD registries. Its only current member is Network Solutions,
Inc.
- ISP and connectivity providers. The ISPCP constituency represents
entities that are in the business of operating DNS nameservers as
a service for third parties and that either operate an Internet
backbone network based on TCP/IP or provide transit either to
Internet users or to third parties' Internet content.
- Non-commercial domain name holders. The NCDNHC consists of
organisations (a) holding at least one domain name (b) that are
incorporated as a non-commercial entity or, if not incorporated,
that operate on a not-for-profit basis primarily for non-commercial
purposes and (c) that are engaged in activities that are primarily
non-commercial, including, e.g., political, educational, religious,
charitable, scientific and artistic.
- Registrars. This constituency is currently made up of members who
meet the requirements for being an ICANN-accredited registrar. ...
- Trademark, other intellectual property and anti-counterfeiting
interests. (IPC). ...
3. The Protocol Supporting Organisation (PSO) concerned with the
assignment of unique parameters for Internet protocols, (the
technical standards that let computers exchange information and
manage communications over the Internet.)
...
Issues
The bulk of the concerns around ICANN extend to two issues: that of
equity and legitimacy. There are also many concerns regarding
institutional design and the efficiency of such a complicated
organisation with so many people involved. One of the major tasks
of the Board will be to reorganise the Domain Name System. The DNS
is the very heart of the Internet, the point at which this vast
global network balances. Presence in (or absence from) the chain of
interlocking servers and databases constituting the DNS is crucial.
Because of the view that the Internet cannot be regulated, whoever
controls the DNS will be subject to immense pressure as the domain
name system is the one place where enforceable global Internet
policy can be promulgated without any of the messy enforcement and
jurisdictional problems that bedevil ordinary law-making exercises
on the Net. It is suggested that a more public interested argument
would be to advance a decentralised root. The centralised root is
what renders "technical coordination" on a level akin to
governance. ICANN has sole authority over the root, and everyone on
the Internet depends on ICANN for his or her domain name. With this
power, ICANN can set conditions for access.
As it stands, ICANN sets the use of Domain Names conditional on a
commitment to use the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
Usage is also conditional on a non-negotiable fee/tax. The concern,
as governments and many corporations become more concerned about
regulating the Internet, is that the conditions could grow. Future
domain name use could include regulations on privacy, content,
income-reporting etc.
It is a concern that businesses, which now realise the huge
economic stake they have in this medium, and governments, who are
seeking to ground their tax revenues and regulatory authority over
Internet transactions, can potentially view ICANN as the means to
impose their particular vision on Internet users worldwide. Thus
the concern emerges that the body will become a pawn for certain
commercial and/or governmental concerns. As such, concerns abound
regarding the accountability, checks and balances on ICANN's
exercise of its powers? Given the possible pressure ICANN may face,
the Internet community and public interest groups are concerned
about how ICANNs may exercise power.
Further, recent actions by ICANN (e.g., imposing a fee on all
domain name registrants, the adoption of the WIPO report for
trademark-related domain name disputes) suggests that ICANN has
already moved far beyond the realm of "technical management" of the
DNS. Internet users and public interest groups are raising
questions about whether this type of global Internet policy is
necessary and whether this is the way it should be structured.
Pertinent questions pertain to whether the bottom-up,
decentralized, consensus-based governance structures under which
the Internet grew and flourished are incompatible with its
continued growth and development? Further concerns emerge regarding
whether users worldwide have called for such a structure and what
opportunities are there for broad participation by users and
industry around the world? Unlike a formal governance body, ICANN's
deliberations are not subject to stringent requirements of
procedure as yet. This is leading to enormous dissatisfaction, as
civil society and Internet users struggle to analyse and comment on
complex documents in the very short time frames given by ICANN to
date.
Despite the many controversies raging, ICANN is proceeding and is
likely to be solidly in place (and legitimated) with the buy in
anticipated at the At Large Elections towards the end of the year.
The main issue for ISPA is how we should join the At Large
membership and contribute to ICANN's structures and further, how
meaningfully, developing economies can really participate in
international standard setting agencies, given the constraints both
in infrastructure and costs.
Useful sites
http://www.icann.org
http://www.icannwatch.org
http://www.wia.org
http://www.cpsr.org
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC provides
accessible information and analysis in order to promote U.S.
and international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights.
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