Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: "ICANN nominates 3 non-US board members to counter bias"
From: David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 15:23:04 -0400
ICANN, the new governing body for the Internet, has ousted three likely US candidates from its board - and appointed international representatives instead. This move will dampen criticism that ICANN is too US-centric however, an independent survey has found that the three new board members - from Mexico, Spain and Canada - are not popular in the Internet industry. Alejandro Pisanty, a professor of Mexico's National Autonomous University, Amadeu Abril i Abril, a professor at Spain's Ramon Llull University Law School, and Jonathan Cohen, a Canadian copyright lawyer, were all elected onto ICANN's board this week. The three new members will work on technical policies and resources for the Internet, once the US government has handed over power over the next year. ICANN's Interim chairman, Esther Dyson, told Silicon.com: "The new board members will (among other things) even out the Board's geographical breadth to more fully reflect the actual breadth of the Internet." But an informal survey conducted before the election by the Internet Domain Name Owners (IDNO) found that these candidates were far from popular. Of 48 IDNO voters, only seven approved of Mr i Abril's appointment - while 22 disapproved. Mr Cohen's appointment disgruntled 21 voters - with only one approval - and most people had no opinion on Mr Pisanty. The voters - who are campaigning to get individual Web site owners represented on ICANN - wanted US network protocol developer, Karl Auerbach, to win a seat - and also Nii Quaynor, CEO of Ghana's one and only ISP, Network Computer Services. There are currently five board members on ICANN - all from the USA. The new appointments bring the total number to eight. Eventually there are plans for 19 men or women on the board. ICANN's Dyson pledged: "As the US Government originally noted, the Internet is an international network, and it is appropriate that technical/resource policies should be set by an international board." Copyright Silicon.com 1998, 1999
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- IP: "ICANN nominates 3 non-US board members to counter bias" David Farber (Oct 22)