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WG: Markle Commits $1 million to Internet Governance
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- Subject: WG: Markle Commits $1 million to Internet Governance
- From: Johannes Ulbricht <Johannes_Ulbricht@csi.com>
- Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 09:50:05 +0100
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-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Steven Clift [SMTP:slc@publicus.net]
Gesendet am: Dienstag, 2. November 1999 21:07
An: cybertelecom-l@listserv.aol.com; link@www.anu.edu.au; ispo@www.ispo.cec.be
Cc: UPFORGRABS-L@CDINET.COM
Betreff: Markle Commits $1 million to Internet Governance
Enclosed is an announcement about Markle Foundation support for
efforts to improve public participation in Internet governance.
Steven Clift
Democracies Online Newswire
http://www.e-democracy.org/do - Join Today
Consultant to the Markle Foundation for Web White & Blue
http://www.webwhiteblue.org
From:
http://www.markle.org/news/Release.199911021044.1219.html
November 2, 1999
Markle Foundation Commits More Than $1 Million To Improve Internet
Governance, Including Initiatives To Make ICANN More Publicly
Accountable
Markle's efforts designed to help ensure that all users of the
Internet are aware of ICANN's role and have a voice in its decision-
making through selection of members of ICANN's Board of Directors
Markle will fund public participation in ICANN and has enlisted The
Carter Center, Common Cause, the American Library Association,
Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and the Center for
Democracy and Technology
Key component of Markle's $100-million initiative - spearheaded by
Markle President Zoë Baird - to improve people's lives through
emerging communications media and information technologies
November 2, Los Angeles, CA - The Markle Foundation is committing
more than $1-million to improve Internet governance, including
several major initiatives designed to make ICANN, the Internet's
first international oversight body, more accountable to all users of
the Internet, it was announced in a statement today by Zoë Baird,
President of the Markle Foundation.
After a year of initial activities, the first elected Board of
Directors of ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers) is now being selected; nine of the 19 Directors have already
been elected by three supporting organizations representing technical
and commercial interests. Users of the Internet at large will elect
an additional nine Directors, and Markle is helping to ensure that
this election process is representative, fair and credible.
Markle's first initiative - a $200,000 grant directly to ICANN to
initiate this process-will enable the organization to hire staff,
conduct outreach (including easy-to-understand educational
materials), create technical mechanisms for global voting, translate
key documents into several major languages for the benefit of all
potential ICANN members worldwide, and initiate the voting process.
Ms. Baird also announced that Markle had enlisted the support of, and
is providing funds for efforts by, The Carter Center, Common Cause,
the American Library Association and other organizations from around
the world to help establish the election process, to reach out to
Internet users, and to monitor the elections. These efforts are
designed to encourage the greatest participation by the broadest
geographic base of individuals and non-commercial users.
Ms. Baird said, "Global institutions are beginning to oversee
Internet activities. The decisions they make will determine whether
the Internet achieves its potential as a powerful weapon for
democratic values and aspirations. Management of the Internet by a
private entity will not be stable or legitimate if that entity does
not adequately include the public voice. So it is essential that
ICANN - which is establishing rules that impact individuals and
organizations alike - be accountable to all Internet users
everywhere. Specifically, that means building a legitimate way for
individuals to vote and create an authority they can trust. We are
bringing in experts who can make this happen."
Ms. Baird added, "The public must be aware of what is going on,
understand what is at stake and have a meaningful opportunity to
express its opinion. President Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center,
which has overseen scores of elections worldwide, and Washington, DC-
based Common Cause, under the leadership of former Massachusetts
Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, give the Internet community the
expertise of leaders who understand how to build and protect
democratic institutions. They - and our other partners - will help us
forge essential ties between the Internet community and established
democracy advocates here and abroad."
Esther Dyson, Interim Chairman of ICANN's Initial Board of Directors,
said, "We're just delighted that Markle will make such a substantial
contribution to ICANN's At-Large Membership program. Markle's
commitment to broad public participation in setting policy for the
Internet infrastructure is evident in the size of the grant and the
attention to the issues that come with it. Although ICANN's specific
mandate is limited, we hope its activities will be a key foundation
for Markle's initiatives in building public interest and
participation in the global medium. We plan to use the money to move
quickly in public outreach, so that we can have broad and informed
public input as we move forward in the design and implementation of
the At-Large membership structure, which will ultimately produce 9 of
our 19 directors."
Initiatives announced today
The initiatives announced today include a $200,000 grant to ICANN, to
fund the first phase of ICANN's At-Large Membership Implementation
Program. This program is designed to build ICANN's At-Large
Membership so that any Internet user in the world can participate. In
addition, this grant will support the development of standards to
ensure a fair, legitimate voting process and technical mechanisms for
global voting. ICANN's At-Large Membership will ultimately select
nine of ICANN's 19-member Board of Directors (nine additional
directors have already been elected by the three Supporting
Organizations; the President/CEO is the 19th member).
Markle is also partnering with a wide range of independent entities
to improve ICANN specifically and Internet governance generally:
· The Atlanta-based Carter Center, the world's leading election
monitoring organization, will help the Internet community create an
adequate mechanism to monitor the ICANN at-large membership elections
in order to evaluate whether they are open and free of fraud. The
Carter Center will also work with other leading experts in voting and
democracy to determine standards for a fair election.
· Common Cause, a 200,000-plus member, nonpartisan organization
promoting open, honest and accountable government, will create and
lead an international group of experts in governance and public
accountability to advise ICANN about how to build bona fide
membership and voting processes.
· The American Library Association (ALA), the world's oldest and
largest national library association, will distribute educational
materials about ICANN and individual membership, including those
produced by ICANN and others, in the United States and, in
partnership with international library groups, throughout the world.
In addition, the ALA has agreed to create virtual "voting booths" at
libraries in the United States - and work with library organizations
abroad to do the same thing - for the At-Large elections.
· The Center for Democracy and Technology(CDT), a leading civil
liberties organization based in Washington, DC, will produce a
pamphlet on why the public should care about ICANN and the decisions
its makes.
· The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School-
a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study,
and help pioneer its development - will explore mechanisms for open
governance and deliberation online. In addition, Markle and the
Berkman Center co-hosted a public workshop on ICANN and pressing
public interest issues in Los Angeles on October 31st. (see
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/workshops/la)
Markle also intends to take other steps to assist leaders from around
the world to participate in meetings of ICANN.
Said Scott Harshbarger, President of Common Cause, and former
Attorney General of Massachusetts, "Throughout our 30-year history,
Common Cause has been a leading voice for citizens on issues of
democratic process, civic participation, and openness and
accountability in American government. We look forward to drawing on
this experience to promote democratic values in Internet governance
through work with the Markle Foundation."
"Libraries are the cornerstone of democracy," said ALA President-
Elect Nancy Kranich. "They provide the information people need to be
well informed, and they provide access to millions of users. No place
is better suited than libraries to foster democracy in action on the
Internet."
Jerry Berman, Executive Director of the Center for Democracy and
Technology, added, "Control over Internet names could ultimately
impact vital public interest including free expression, personal
privacy, and the structure of tomorrow's Internet. An open and
accessible domain name system makes it possible for anyone to stand
on a street corner in cyberspace and speak to the whole world. We
need to make sure that domain name governance is consistent with our
fundamental civil liberties. Public interest participation in and
oversight of this governance system is essential to preserve those
liberties."
"Deliberation is at the core of both open education and open
governance: a chance for views to evolve and to be refined, rather
than simply summed," said Jonathan Zittrain, Executive Director of
the Berkman Center. "We are seeking to build a kernel of open source
tools to facilitate broad-based online discussion, deliberation, and
closure on issues that concern large and diverse groups of people and
institutions."
ICANN Initiatives are Centerpiece of Markle's Internet Governance
Project
The initiatives announced today at ICANN's first annual meeting are
part of Markle's recently-launched Internet Governance Project (IGP).
Markle has committed more than $1 million to the Internet Governance
Project, which is designed to promote the public interest in
nontraditional, international venues where decisions are increasingly
made and standards are set that affect the Internet. These venues -
non-governmental organizations such as ICANN and the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C), and intergovernmental or regional organizations
such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual
Property Organization - consider such issues as electronic commerce
standards, intellectual property, consumer protection, privacy,
content regulation, taxation and online jurisdiction.
An important component of Markle's Policy for a Networked Society
program, the Internet Governance Project will promote the public's
interest in a number of ways, such as:
· Increase awareness among public interest leaders about how the
decisions of non-traditional policy-making entities are affecting
their constituencies;
· Provide useful, cutting-edge policy analysis from scholars and
professionals from the law, political science, public policy and
other relevant disciplines;
· Assist in institution building by working with nontraditional
policymaking entities to make them more accountable and democratic as
they remain efficient and goal oriented.
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), and
other important features of the Internet.
About the Markle Foundation
Established in 1927, the Markle Foundation has focused on
communications media for the past 30 years. A private not-for-profit
philanthropy, the Foundation has assets of approximately $180-
million. Since the appointment of Zoë Baird as President in 1998, the
Foundation has decided to focus its resources on helping ensure that
emerging new media and information technology improve people's lives
and on promoting the development of communications industries that
meet public needs.
In June 1999, the Markle Foundation established its Policy for a
Networked Society program, which seeks to enhance the public voice in
the consideration and resolution of policy affecting communications
media and information technology. Markle's other programs are: Public
Engagement through Interactive Technologies, Interactive Media for
Children, and Information Technologies for Better Health. Markle
pursues its goals through a range of activities including analysis,
research, public information and development of innovative products
and services. Markle creates and operates many of its own projects-
using not only grants but also investments and strategic alliances
with non-profits and businesses. More information on the Markle
Foundation can be found at www.markle.org.
CONTACT:
Julia Moffett
Markle Foundation
(212) 489-6655 x 337
- OR -
Stuart Fischer
Robinson Lerer & Montgomery
(212) 484-7758
------- End of forwarded message -------
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