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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Alan Davidson Tel: 202-637-9800 Email: abd@cdt.org
Jeff Cronin, Common Cause |
Despite Technical Problems, Domain Name Management Group Takes a Step Toward Broad Representation Of the Internet Community
October 11, 2000-At 8:30 PM EDT last night, the online voting booths closed at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), bringing to an end the Internet's first global online election, in which Internet users selected five new members of the ICANN Board: Karl Auerbach (North America), Ivan Moura Campos (Latin America), Masanobu Katoh (Asia/Australia/Pacific), Andy Mueller-Maguhn (Europe), and Nii Quaynor (Africa). ICANN manages Internet domain names and other addressing functions.
"These first ICANN elections are truly historic, and will provide valuable lessons as to how ICANN and other global organizations can operate in a transparent and accountable way in the future," Common Cause President Scott Harshbarger said.
The election was far from perfect. Both ICANN and the company it contracted to manage the election, election.com, were plagued by technical difficulties that denied some Internet users the ability to register or to vote.
"The online community has taken the first steps toward broader public participation in managing the Internet itself," said Alan Davidson, Staff Counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "Though we are concerned that the election encountered technical difficulties, thousands of people from around the world played a role in deciding how the Internet operates."
The Directors-elect will assume their seats on November 16 at ICANN's annual meeting in Marina del Rey, California, filling out the nineteen-member Board. At the November meeting, the Board is expected to select new Top-Level Domains that will supplement the familiar ".com," ".org," and ".net" addresses. It is also expected to commission a six-month study of the recent election and of the overall nature of public representation in ICANN.
"Work on making ICANN accessible, transparent, and more broadly representative of users' interests does not stop with this election," said CDT Executive Director Jerry Berman. "We will be studying the election process carefully. Common Cause and CDT are committed to developing a solution that will help ICANN make full use of the diversity of voices that the Internet offers."
CDT and Common Cause have kept a close eye on ICANN for some time, monitoring its processes and advocating solutions that would guarantee adequate user representation. In March, the two organizations released "On the Internet, For the Internet: A Study of the ICANN At-Large Elections." And in partnership with the Bertelsmann Foundation, Common Cause and CDT constructed one of the election's major resources for candidate information. The site, available at http://www.cdt.org/icann-election/, displayed candidate responses to questions that CDT and Common Cause distributed regarding some of the important issues that the ICANN Board will soon face.
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The Center For Democracy & Technology 1634 Eye Street NW, Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20006 (v) 202.637.9800 (f) 202.637.0968 Contact CDT Copyright © 2005 by Center for Democracy and Technology. |