IP: ALSC press release

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Esther Dyson <edyson@edventure.com>

hard-fought.... FYI from Esther


>?GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY!?
>
>ICANN BOARD APPROVES INDIVIDUAL INTERNET USER PARTICIPATION, CALLS FOR
>ORGANIZATION OF AT-LARGE MEMEBERSHIP
>
>March 14, Accra, Ghana -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
>Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors approved a resolution during its
>meeting today that called for the creation of an At-Large mechanism for
>?meaningful, informed participation by Internet users,? as recommended by
>the At-Large Study Committee (ALSC).  Taking a critical step towards
>structuring participation and representation of individuals from
>throughout the diverse global Internet user communities ("At-Large
>constituency") within ICANN, the Board called upon the ICANN community to
>create an At-Large membership based on ?bottom-up, self-organized, local
>Internet community? groups.
>
>"The ALSC is pleased the Board committed to a strong role for individual
>Internet users in ICANN and acknowledged the merits of our report," said
>Carl Bildt, ALSC Chair. "We worked to find a solution that ensures
>Internet users have a sustained role in the technical coordination of the
>Internet, and are gratified the Board has now recognized the Internet
>community?s bottom-up organizing activities.?
>
>In the resolution, the Board stated that it ?wishes to move forward with
>energy and enthusiasm to build a meaningful structure for informed
>participation by the full range of Internet users, and seeks avenues to
>achieve these objectives that are bottom-up, self-organized, and
>self-sustaining.?
>
>ICANN is in the process of considering wholesale restructuring, and the
>resolution instructs the Board Committee on Restructuring to ensure that
>their ongoing efforts at crafting a blueprint for ICANN reform include
>?workable mechanisms and procedures that enable meaningful opportunities
>for participation by the full range of Internet users,? and ?an
>appropriate role for those interests in ICANN's coordinating and
>management structures.?
>
>In its annual meeting in November, 2001, the Board formally accepted the
>ALSC?s final report as a basis for discussion and received in Accra the
>Committee?s ?Implementation Report,? which provided details on the
>processes needed to implement the ALSC?s final report. The final report
>proposes a regionally based global framework for all interested
>individuals' structured participation in ICANN, focuses At-Large
>membership (an electorate) on an identifiable and vested community,
>provides a reasonable, initial mechanism for registration and
>self-funding, and grants At-Large members a proportionate responsibility
>for selecting ICANN's Board.  While the Board, today, made clear that
>there would be no direct elections to fill At-Large Board seats at this
>time, it left open the possibility of future At-Large elections.
>
>?We are still moving forward from where we were, although we have not yet
>reached our goal of regularly elected At-Large directors,? said Esther
>Dyson, an ALSC member and former chairman of ICANN. ?Now the At-Large
>Membership has the challenge ­ and responsibility ­ of meeting the Board?s
>call for informed, active participation? which we hope will lead to
>issue-oriented, transparent elections.?
>
>The ALSC's reports are available on the Internet (at www.atlargestudy.org)
>and the Board?s resolution is available at www.icann.org.
>.
>ABOUT THE ALSC
>The ALSC is an independent Committee created by ICANN earlier this year to
>provide recommendations to ICANN's Board on how to structure the diverse
>global Internet community's participation within ICANN. The ALSC is
>conducting an aggressive outreach, discussion, research, and
>consensus-building campaign that will culminate with the submission of a
>final report to the Board in November. In addition to Carl Bildt, the ALSC
>includes Charles Costello, Pierre Dandjinou, Esther Dyson, Olivier Iteanu,
>Ching-Yi Liu, Thomas Niles, Oscar Robles, and Pindar Wong. Biographies of
>these individuals, and Information on the ALSC, can be found at
>www.atlargestudy.org.
>
>ABOUT ICANN
>ICANN is a technical coordination body for the Internet. Created in
>October 1998 by a broad coalition of the Internet's business, technical,
>academic, and user communities, ICANN is assuming responsibility for a set
>of technical functions previously performed under U.S. government contract
>by IANA and other groups. Specifically, ICANN coordinates the assignment
>of identifiers that must be globally unique for the Internet to function:
>Internet domain names, IP address numbers, and protocol parameter and port
>numbers. In addition, ICANN coordinates the stable operation of the
>Internet's root server system. As a non-profit, private-sector
>corporation, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of
>the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation
>of global Internet communities; and to developing policy through
>private-sector, bottom-up, consensus-based means. ICANN welcomes the
>participation of any interested Internet user, business, or organization.
>
>CONTACT
>Denise Michel
>+1 310 823 9358
>dmichel@atlargestudy.org
>
>
>
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com


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Esther Dyson            Always make new mistakes!
chairman, EDventure Holdings
writer, Release 3.0 (on Website below)
edyson@edventure.com
1 (212) 924-8800    --   fax  1 (212) 924-0240
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New York, NY 10011 USA
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