IP: ICANN Votes to Allow Voting

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: "Lorrie Cranor" <lorrie () research att com>
> To: "Dave Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: ICANN Votes to Allow Voting
> Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 20:02:23 -0500
>
>
> Dave,
>
> This may be of interest to IPers. ICANN is proceeding
> with an at-large membership election. I participated in the
> CDT/Common Cause study that made recommendations
> about this election. It appears they have adopted many
> of the recommendations. But it remains unclear how they have
> addressed our concerns about the potentially very large
> number of people registering to vote (these included
> concerns about capture, as well as logistical concerns).
> I've heard from ICANN folks that they don't think very many
> people will bother to register.
>
> BTW, anyone 16 an older can register to vote in this election
> by joining ICANN now. Go to http://members.icann.org/join_now.htm
> to register. The process is easy and free, however, ICANN does
> not appear to have a privacy policy.
>
> Lorrie
>
>
> Industry Standard
> March 10, 2000, 08:57 AM PST
> ICANN Votes to Allow Voting
>
> By Keith Perine
>
> CAIRO - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers took an 
> important step toward broad-based legitimacy
> today, as it approved the start of an at-large membership election. The 
> election would involve almost a third of ICANN's
> first 18-member permanent board.
>
> The ICANN board unanimously voted to allow qualified people who sign up 
> for membership on ICANN's site to elect five
> at-large directors before ICANN's November annual meeting in Los Angeles. 
> Members must be at least 16 years of age, and
> must furnish both e-mail and postal addresses. About 6,000 people have 
> signed up for membership since ICANN opened the
> process on Feb. 23. Most of the applicants have been young North American men.
>
> [ . . . ]
>
> At last November's annual meeting, the Markle Foundation granted ICANN 
> $200,000 to help fund the at-large membership
> process. The foundation also commissioned a study of the process by the 
> Center for Democracy and Technology, Common
> Cause and others.
>
> ICANN came to Cairo with a plan to stagger the at-large elections, by 
> inserting an at-large council to act as an
> electoral college for at-large board member elections. The CDT-Common 
> Cause study urged ICANN to hold direct elections
> instead, and to do so only after clearly restating its narrow technical 
> mission.
>
> [ . . . ]
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Lorrie Faith Cranor <lorrie () research att com>
> AT&T Labs-Research, Shannon Laboratory
> 180 Park Ave. Room A241, Florham Park, NJ 07932
> Phone: 973-360-8607  FAX: 973-360-8970
> http://www.research.att.com/~lorrie/