[ncdnhc-discuss] CYBER-FED 12: User Interest in ICANN is Broad and Deep

Hans Klein hans.klein at pubpolicy.gatech.edu
Fri Feb 15 06:04:02 CET 2002


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   CYBER-FEDERALIST          No. 12       February 14, 2002


             USER INTEREST IN ICANN IS BROAD AND DEEP

                          Hans Klein
    Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
                   http://www.civsoc.org
                The Internet Democracy Project
          http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/
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February 15 is the final date for expressions of interest in a new 
membership organization for ICANN.  From the information made public by 
ICANN's At Large Study Committee (ALSC), it seems that few people have 
responded to its call.  (See http://www.AtLargeStudy.org)

This lack of response is curious, since there has been widespread and 
prolonged interest by Internet users and organizations in an ICANN 
membership organization.  Indeed, no other body in the ICANN system has 
attracted greater interest than the At Large Membership.

The ALSC's low response rate may simply reflect users' attitude toward the 
ALSC rather than disinterest in an organization.  For better or worse, the 
ALSC is not seen as deeply committed to user participation.

However, other expressions of user interest are abundant.  That ranges from 
expressions of fleeting interest (voting in ICANN elections) to deep 
commitment (forming a user organization and organizing meetings.)  Lest 
there be any question about interest in a user organization in ICANN, I 
summarize here some of the evidence.

User participation in the 2000 election
=======================================
The ALSC has posted summary statistics of user participation in the 2000 
election.  (See http://WWW.ATLARGESTUDY.ORG/stats/summary1.shtml ). Key 
statistics are:
   ** 176,849 entries were received in the initial voter registration
   **   76,183 users completed the complex voter registration procedures
   **   34,035 users voted in the election
The number of voters was more than triple the highest pre-election estimate 
of participation.  The number of initial registrations was a full order of 
magnitude greater than those early estimates.  Clearly, user interest was 
enormous -- much, much more than even the most optimistic estimates.

A deeper commitment to participation occurred at the November 2000 Board 
meeting, where a core group of individuals and NGO's launched the Interim 
Coordinating Committee of the ICANN membership (see 
http://www.ICANNmembers.org).  Those launching the ICC included four of the 
five newly-elected At Large Directors and five former Board candidates.  In 
the 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 at Large, the Internet Democracy 
Project, Uruguayan Internet developer, the African Internet Group, and the 
Italian Local Internet Community (.it).

Since its creation, the ICC has hosted meetings at every single ICANN 
event.  It has laid the foundation for a true bottom-up user 
organization.  Its existence is evidence of committed core group of 
individuals and organizations that have self-organized in a bottom-up process.

Finally, a large number of individuals and organizations have manifested an 
intermediate degree of interest.  They have actively educated themselves on 
issues and expressed their support for the At Large Membership.  I 
reproduce below the signatories to two documents, the July 2000 "Petition 
to ICANN" and the "Civil Society Statement" from the 2000 elections (see 
www.CSIF.net).

SIGNATORIES TO THE CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT
==========================================
The Civil Society Statement identified election issues and recommended 
policies to render ICANN more accountable and effective.  (See 
http://www.civilsocietyinternetforum.org/statement.html ) The list of 
signatories follows:
Michel Menou City University (London) UK
Nobuo SAKIYAMA Preparatory committee for Japan Chapter of CPSR Japan
Leah Gallegos The TLD Lobby USA
Dylan K. Park CivilNet South Korea
USA Eloise Kleban University of Maine System USA
Jeanette Hofmann Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin Germany
Barbara Simons Association for Computing Machinery (former President) USA
Alan Levin Sunesi South Africa
Robin Bandy USA
Vittorio Bertola Vitaminic Italy
Yukika Matsumoto JCA-NET Japan
Said Essoulami Centre for Media Freedom Middle East and North Africa UK and 
Morocco
Bob Crawford Association of Internet Professionals USA
Critt Jarvis USA
Berend Schuitema Marshals Community Service Corps South Africa
Fernando Escamilla Nueva Diplomacia Mexico
Johannes K. Chiang Dept. of MIS, NCCU Taiwan ROC
Lawrence Lessig Stanford University USA
Emerson Tiller University of Texas USA
Andy Mueller-Maguhn Chaos Computer Club Germany
Francesco Ravanelli Italy
Domagoj Margetiæ Croatian Confederation of the Civil Society (ICCS)  Croatia
Dennis Schaefer Member of IDNO USA
Chris Bailey Internet Rights Campaign  Association for Progressive 
Communications (APC)  UK
Tracy Cohen LINK/Wits University South Africa
Marc Holitscher Unit for Internet Studies Switzerland
Tomoya Inyaku JCA-NET Japan
Hans Klein Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility 
(CPSR),  Georgia Institute of Technology USA
Norbert Klein Open Forum of Cambodia Cambodia
Veni Markovski Internet Society - Bulgaria,  ICANN Membership 
Implementation Task Force Chair for East Europe Bulgaria
Milton Mueller Syracuse University USA
Toshimaru Ogura Net-workers against Surveillance Task-force (NaST) Japan
Nii Quaynor Network Computer Systems (NCS) Ghana
Roberto Roggiero INTERCOM - Ecuanex Ecuador
Marc Rotenberg Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) USA
Barry Steinhardt American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) USA
Shinji Yamane Japan Chapter preparatory committee Computer Professionals 
for Social Responsibility (CPSR) Japan
Manon Ress Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute USA
Paul Garrin Global Name Space Consortium USA
Mikki Barry Domain Name Rights Coalition (DNRC) USA
Oh, Byoung-il Korean Progressive Network 'Jinbonet' Korea
Carlos Afonso Information Network for the Third Sector (Rits) Brazil
Yaman Akdeniz Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties United Kingdom
Carlos Vera Quintana CTIT UPADI Ecuador
Christopher Frankonis Global Effort to Eradicate Know-nothings (GEEK Force)
Wilfred Silva  Hyacinth Silva Lankanet  E-mail and Internet Support for 
NGO's  Sri Lanka
E.B.Shantha Women's Unit,  The Resource Centre for Community Groups Sri Lanka
G.Rajakumar International War-Related Trauma &  Humanitarian Intervention 
Trust Sri Lanka
Franck Biancheri Prometheus Europ France
Darryl (Dassa) Lynch DHS International Australia


SIGNATORIES TO THE PETITION TO ICANN OF JULY 2000
=================================================
The Petition to the ICANN Board requested that ICANN work with civil 
society groups to facilitate participation in its processes.  (See 
http://www.civilsocietyinternetforum.org/petition.html ).  Its signatories 
include the following (there is some overlap with the previous document):
Carlos Vera, UPADI, Ecuador
Nii Quaynor, Internet Society Ghana
Pierre Ouedraogo, INTIF France, Burkina Faso
Hyonsok Oh Jang, SNF, Korea
Jan-Ming Ho, Academic Einica, Taiwan
Manon Ress, DJD Institute, USA
Oscar Robles, NIC-Mexico, Mexico
Clive Siambroor, S&H
Moin Zaudi, SDNP, Pakistan
Ji Eun Park, KRNLC, Korea
Sue Leader, New Zealand Federation of Business Professional Women, Inc., 
New Zealand
Tomoya Tatara, JCA-Net, Japan
Hyungjin Kim, Netpia
Chris Bailey, Association for Progressive Communications, United Kingdom
Wonjae Lee, Citizens for Cultural Reform
Cary Karp, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Sweden
Byeong-Leon Park, Korean Women's Associations United, Korea
Eom Jong-Seok, Seoul Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA)
George Rtehy, NETEKA
Jin Ar Kim, PeaceNet, Korea
Desiree Miloshenc, MusicBank.net, UK
Oh Byoung-il, Korean Progtressive Netowork/Jinbonet, Korea
Joo Chul-min, Cyberright Team, Korea
Christopher Ambler, .Web Registry, USA
Kyu Man Hwang, Korea Progressive Network/Jinbonet, Korea
Badiel Cali Drisne, ONATEL, Burkina Faso
Anne-Rachel Inne
Sangkil Yoon, FIF
Iee Sy, Kwangwoon University
Pierre Dandjinou
Kwenduck Park, CivilNet, Korea
Oswaldo Aguirre, NIC-VE,
Yasuda Yukihiro, JCA-Net, Japan
Kang, In Soon, YESNIC
Sub Ramanian, INFITT
Dale Craig, Z.MD
Bon Youn Jeong, Young Korean Academy
Stafford Guest, Internet and Users Society, Niue
Heesob Nam, IPLeft, Korea
Marat Guriev, Internet Providers Union
Georg Panzer, NamePlanate.com
Choi Yum Hee, Korean Federation for Environmental Movement, Korea
Byung kyu Kim, KRNIC, Korea
Shobha Gautam
Ji-Young Choi, Joongang Ilbo, Korea
Sunyoung Lee, KWI
Jikyung Kim, Korea Internet Forum, Korea
Toshimaru Ogura, Nast, Japan
Kyong-Hu Kwon, PIN
Jon Whelan, Artenic.com
Hyekyong Kim, Task Group for Labor Information
Hui Jin Yang, Intellectual Property Left, Korea
Tony Hill, Internet Society of Australia
Hye-Young Kang, KRNIC, Korea
Wolfgang Kleinwaechter, University Aarchus, Denmark
Ching-Yi Liu,TANET, Taiwan
Kwak Hyun, Ecojustice Organization, Korea
Yoshinobu Hisadome, CACAnet
Hans Klein, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, USA
Iori Noda,
Roberto Gaetano, DNSO/GA Chair, Italy
Clement Dzidonu, International Institute for Information Technology, Ghana
Dmitri Boushou, Rostelecom, Russia
Dori Kornfeld, EPIC/ACM, USA
Ant Brooks, Future Foundation
Young Ok Park, Netpia, Korea
Tang Guangliang, CASS
Chan-Mo Chuivet, KISDI, Korea
Johannes K. Chiang, NCCU/ROC, Taiwan
Poplant Mandrino, Sucisu/DF
Yutaka Ikeda, Japan
Navoaki Yano, Japan
George Park, Genuity
Khoo Boon Hing, Speednames Singapore, Singapore
Norbert Klein, Open Forum of Cambodia, Cambodia
Seyoung Chun, Chunguan National University, Korea
Ronald Wiplinger, Wang's Trace Taiwan
K. S. Raju, Internet Communications India, India
Lim Soyoun Rzdrik
Mungkoo Kang, Seoul Net Forum, Korea
Ha, Enn-ju, Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, Korea
Lee Enn Yong, LACPK
Choi, Jae Suok, KFEM
SaetByal Lee, PSPD
Kevin Patel, Neteka
Mariusz Kondrat, ISOC Polska, Poland
Paul Chon, Web Express
Briand Lari, UC Santa Cruz, USA
Sangsao Hur, Sungkonghoe University, Korea
Pamala Stanley,
Kim Heitman, Electronic Frontiers Australia, Australia
Kim, Eunmee, Kookmin University Seoul, Korea
Bill Washburn, Member At Large
Florescu Gabriela ARMEDD, ICI, Romania
Garret Sern, Educause, USA
Christopher Chiu, American Civil Liberties Union, USA
Slobodan Markovic, Internodium, Slobodan Markovic, Internodium, Yugoslavia
Yangwoo Ko, Peacenet, Korea
Jun Takizawa, Chuo University, Japan
Chris Maroney, Afternic.com, USA
Veni Markovski, Internet Society Bulgaria, Bulgaria
Carlos Alvarez, Wamani Networks, Argentina
Dannie Avelino, Institute for Popular Democracy, Philippines
Judith Oppenheimer, ICB Inc., USA
T. Byfield, independent, USA
Hernani Dimantas, Privacidade-Brasil, Brazil
Jens Wilkinson, The New Observer, Japan
Herb Kanner, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, USA
Nubuo Sakiyama, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Japan
Masafumi Tatara, Japan
Osami Nomura, JCA-Net, Japan
Gil Gilmore, USA
Sven-Erik Andersen
Milton Mueller, Syracuse University, USA
Nani Buntarian, Indonesian women's movement, Indonesia
Makoto Teranaka, JCA-Net, Japan
Paul Garrin, Name.Space International, USA
Lin Pugh, Knowledge Sharing Program, The Netherlands
Yasuko Muramatsu, JCA-Net, Japan
Shinji Yamane, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Japan
S M Nazer Hossain, ISDE, Bangladesh



User interest in ICANN is both broad and deep.  In light of this, ICANN 
should implement its earlier commitment for a balanced board.  All nine 
seats for user representatives on the ICANN board should be filled by open 
elections.




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CYBER-FEDERALIST is a regularly published series of analyses and 
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Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).  See:
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It is produced as part of the Internet Democracy Project. See:
     http://www.civsoc.org
     http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/

The Cyber-Federalist is written by Prof. Hans Klein, School of Public 
Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology
         http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~hk28/

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