Please share with the PSO/PC.
Thanks.
Denise Michel
June 11,
2002
TO:
ICANN Board of Directors
FROM: Denise
Michel, At-Large Coordinator (Acting)
SUBJECT: Status
Report on At-Large Organizing
In
response to the Board's
decision in Accra that "ICANN should have a robust At Large mechanism for
meaningful, informed participation by Internet users of the kind recommended in
the [At-Large Study Committee] ALSC
report," a grass roots, self-supporting effort to establish At-Large
structures worldwide was launched last month. This memo provides the Board with
information on the progress the ICANN community has made thus far in creating
(as directed by the Board) “At Large structures built upon bottom-up,
self-organized, local Internet community institutions and other organizations
that meet the general criteria of openness, participation, and
self-sustainability.”
With no
funding currently available in ICANN's budget, the Board
authorized the acceptance of initial contributions to support the creation
and nurturing of At-Large structures. Esther Dyson, a member of the former ALSC and former Chairman of ICANN, led
initial fundraising efforts, and I am coordinating the organizing and
fundraising efforts on a temporary basis.
(I am the former Executive Director of the ALSC). Thus far, a total of US$17,000 in
donations has been received from Esther Dyson, Salesforce.com, Timothy Andrews,
and Verisign, and we are seeking additional private sector
support.
A
website and mailing list was established last month at www.at-large.org to distribute
information and assistance for the creation and growth of At-Large structures,
and notices were distributed to individuals and organizations.
As
directed by the Board, At-Large structures can be new groups or existing
organizations that will involve and represent individual Internet users on
issues that fall within ICANN's mission.
At-Large structures have been asked to commit to:
- Meet
general criteria of openness, participation, and self-sustainability;
- Engage
in outreach to, and education of, individual Internet users about ICANN and
ICANN issues;
- Involve
individual Internet users, aggregate views, and identify relevant Internet
user priorities;
- Solicit
the opinions of their members on these issues; and
- Work
with other ICANN stakeholders to address issues and develop positions on
Internet policy issues that fall within ICANN's
mission.
At this writing, 13 At-Large structures have been created
(or designated) representing over 500,000 individual Internet users in over 70
countries:
(Worldwide)
- Icannatlarge.com
(www.icannatlarge.com)
(Africa)
- Internet
Society Madagascar (www.isoc.mg/cop/isoc)
(Asia-Pacific)
- Cyber
Law Solutions Ltd (www.naavi.com)
(Europe)
- Internet
Society Bulgaria (www.isoc.bg)
- Confederation
of European Computer User Associations (CECUA)
(www.cecua.org)
- Sistemas
Técnicos de Enseñanza Consultores(STEC)(www.stec.info)
- ISOC
Finland (www.siy.fi)
- ISOC
Italy (www.isoc.it)
(Latin
America/Caribbean)
- Internet
Society Argentina Chapter (www.isoc.org.ar)
- LatinoamerICANN
(www.latinoamericann.derecho.org.ar)
(North
America)
- Institute
for the Study of Information Technology and Society (InSITeS)
(www.cmu.edu/insites)
- Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility (Civil Society Democracy Proj.)
(www.CPSR.org)
- California
Democratic Party, Computer & Internet Caucus (www.ca-dem-net.org)
To
guide, encourage and help with preliminary At-Large organizing efforts, a
temporary, informal At-Large Organizing Committee recently was formed. Their work is being conducted primarily
via email and the website, and focuses on:
- Conducting
outreach, identifying individuals/groups worldwide (individuals, academic
institutions, businesses, non-commercial/consumer groups, and other
non-governmental organizations) interested in relevant Internet user issues
and At-Large organizing;
- Managing
surveys and discussions on specific relevant issues, as determined by user
indications of interest or ICANN's policy-making activities;
- Identifying
common (and conflicting) objectives and interests relevant to Internet
users and ICANN's mission; and
- Establishing
mechanisms for coordination and cooperation and policy development among
At-Large structures and with ICANN stakeholders, including supporting the Board's
directive on At-Large, which states that "the Board Committee on
Restructuring, working in conjunction with the President and staff, is
instructed to ensure that their ongoing efforts at crafting a blueprint for
ICANN reform include (a) workable mechanisms and procedures that enable
meaningful opportunities for participation by the full range of Internet
users, including individuals, academic institutions, large and small
businesses, non-commercial entities (including consumer groups), and other
non-governmental organizations, (b) an appropriate role for those interests in
ICANN's coordinating and management structures, and (c) appropriate mechanisms
to minimize disruption during the reform implementation process."
The
At-Large Organizing Committee is comprised of representatives of At-Large
Structures, as well as one member each from the former At-Large Study Committee
and the former NGO and Academic ICANN Study (NAIS) group. The
Committee currently includes:
- Esther
Dyson, edyson@edventure.com (ALSC - ICANN At-Large Study
Committee, www.atlargestudy.org)
- Christian
Ahlert, Christian.Ahlert@sowi.uni-giessen.de (NAIS - NGO and
Academic ICANN Study; www.naisproject.org)
- Izumi
Aizu, izumi@anr.org (NAIS
- NGO and Academic ICANN Study; www.naisproject.org)
- Satyajit
Gupta, icheckemail@indiatimes.com
(Icannatlarge.com, www.icannatlarge.com)
- Sotiris
Sotiropoulos, sotiris@hermesnetwork.com (Icannatlarge.com, www.icannatlarge.com)
- Andriamparany
Marius, marius@refer.mg (Internet Society
Madagascar, www.isoc.mg/cop/isoc)
- Ramboasalama
Haja, ramboa@ird.mg (Internet Society Madagascar, www.isoc.mg/cop/isoc)
- Na.Vijayashankar,
naavi@vsnl.com (Cyber Law Solutions Ltd,
www.naavi.com)
- Dimitar
Kirov, icannatlarge@isoc.bg
(Internet Society Bulgaria, www.isoc.bg)
- Veni
Markovski, icannatlarge@isoc.bg
(Internet Society Bulgaria, www.isoc.bg and Global Internet Policy Initiative -
GIPI - Bulgaria)
- Alain
Moscowitz,
alain.moscowitz@cecua.org
(CECUA - Confederation of European Computer User Associations, www.cecua.org)
- Tom
Jacobsen, JacobsenTom@acm.org (CECUA
- Confederation of European Computer User Associations, www.cecua.org)
- Núria
de la Fuente Teixidó, ateneas@retemail.es (STEC - Sistemas
Técnicos de Enseñanza Consultores, www.stec.info)
- Gonzalo
Auza, gonzalo@juandegaray.org.ar (Internet Society
Argentina Chapter, www.isoc.org.ar)
- Edmundo
Valenti, emv@southtech.com.ar (Internet Society Argentina
Chapter, www.isoc.org.ar)
- Gabriel
Piñeiro, legales@derecho.org.ar
(LatinoamerICANN, www.latinoamericann.derecho.org.ar)
- Erick
Iriarte Ahon, faia@amauta.rcp.net.pe (LatinoamerICANN, www.latinoamericann.derecho.org.ar)
- Peter
M. Shane, pshane@andrew.cmu.edu (InSITeS - Institute for the
Study of Information Technology and Society, www.cmu.edu/insites)
- Prof.
Ramayya Krishnan, rk2x@andrew.cmu.edu (InSITeS - Institute for the
Study of Information Technology and Society, www.cmu.edu/insites)
- Hans
Klein, hans.klein@pubpolicy.gatech.edu (Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility/Civil Society Democracy Project, www.CPSR.org/www.CivSoc.org)
- Andy
Oram, andyo@oreilly.com (Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility/Civil Society Democracy Project, www.CPSR.org/www.CivSoc.org)
- Rick
Hauptman, RBHauptman@aol.com (California Democratic
Party, Computer & Internet Caucus, www.ca-dem-net.org)
- Tommi
Karttaavi, tommi.karttaavi@iki.fi (ISOC Finland, www.siy.fi)
- Vittorio
Bertola, vb@vitaminic.net (ISOC Italy,
www.isoc.it)
The goal of the At-Large structures is to represent
individual Internet users in ICANN’s development of policies and practices for
the management of the DNS, which will help ensure that ICANN operates as a
private entity for the benefit of all members of the Internet community. These organizations and their members
are concerned about, and involved in, a variety of Internet issues, and members
of the At-Large Organizing Committee are discussing which ICANN issues they will
work together to address. Under
discussion are issues on which they could provide a collective “individual
Internet users” perspective, including:
- Internationalized
domain names;
- Practices
and policies for registering and transferring generic top level domain names
(gTLD's);
- Requirements
concerning provision, access to, and use of "who is" data;
- Domain-name
intellectual property issues;
- Introduction
of new top level domains (TLDs,);
- Implementation
of IPv6;
- Fair
allocation of address space; and
- Participation
and representation of At-Large in ICANN’s policy and
decision-making.
Members of At-Large Organizing Committee are submitting
initial comments to the Evolution and Reform Committee regarding representation
and participation of At-Large in a reformed ICANN. In the near term, it is expected that
the Committee will continue to focus their efforts on supporting the formation
of At-Large structures, providing input on ICANN reform, and identifying and
providing input on key ICANN issues.
I would be pleased to answer any questions, and can be
reached at coordinator@at-large.org and +1-408-867-1986.