[icann-eu] CYBER-FEDERALIST NO.7: ICANN Members Launch Coordinating Committee

[Hans Klein <hklein@cpsr.org>]

                        Please forward
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  CYBER-FEDERALIST       No. 7        November 16, 2000 

     ICANN AT LARGE MEMBERS LAUNCH COORDINATING COMMITTEE

             Civil Society Democracy Project (CivSoc)
   Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
                  http://www.civsoc.org

               The Internet Democracy Project 
         http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/
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ICANN AT LARGE MEMBERS 
LAUNCH COORDINATING COMMITTEE
TO WORK FOR "CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT"

LOS ANGELES - The ICANN meeting in Marina del Rey was the site of an
historic event: the launch of a first organization to facilitate
self-organization of the ICANN At Large members and foster democratic
participation in the ICANN process. That new organization is the "Interim
Coordinating Committee" (ICC) for the ICANN At Large membership.

The ICC will promote and facilitate user participation in ICANN by Internet
users from around the globe.  The ICC is intended to help the membership
develop a collective voice with which to speak out on issues.  Its web site
is: http://www.ICANNmembers.org
 
Those launching the ICC have broad ties to the At Large membership. The
organizers include four of the five newly-elected At Large Directors and
five former Board candidates; in the recent election these nine individuals
received nearly 70% of all votes cast in their regions (Europe, Africa, L.
America, N. America).  Also participating were representatives from
numerous Internet societies, including the Korean Internet Forum, France
@Large, the Internet Democracy Project, Uruguayan Internet developer, the
African Internet Group, and the Italian Local Internet Community (.it).

A high priority issue for the At Large membership is the "Clean Sheet"
study proposed by the Board at their July meeting in Yokohama.  At that
time, the At Large Membership had not yet even been constituted.  Yet the
study's mandate is to reconsider the very existence of the At Large
membership -- a prospect that seems at odds with the remarkable success of
the At Large elections in which some 158,000 users participated.  The ICC
will be working with members to help articulate the member perspective on
this study.

Another issue is the need to be able to communicate with the Membership.
Currently, the membership data and even access to the ICANN-Announce
mailing list is not available to the membership. That makes it difficult to
inform users of member activities.
 
Another issue for the ICC is the legal status of the ICANN membership.  At
Large Members need to fully understand the rights and responsibilities
should accompany membership.  The ICC will also have to define procedures
for identifying consensus on issues relevant to users.

"The ICC is committed to constructive engagement with the existing Board,"
said Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, professor at the University of Aarhus. "ICANN
processes have sometimes been contentious, but with this important step
forward in the implementation of the At Large membership, there is a
renewed willingness to work together for effective problem-solving."

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CYBER-FEDERALIST is a regularly published series of analyses and
commentaries on Internet governance and ICANN elections.  It is produced as
part of the Internet Democracy Project. See: 
    http://www.civsoc.org
    http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/
    http://www.cyber-federalist.org  (archive)

The Cyber-Federalist is written by Hans Klein
    http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~hk28/

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