ICANN was established in 1998 to operate a global internet
domain name addressing system that would bring greater stability
and co-ordination to the internet. The report calls for individual
internet users to be better represented on the ICANN board
responsible for policy and decision making.
There are currently nineteen members of the ICANN board of
directors, of which only five represent the interests of the
internet community at large. When they were elected to the board in
November 2000, it was hoped that they would improve the
accountability and legitimacy of ICANN within the developing
on-line community.
The primary aim of the ASCL has been to assess the involvement
of the larger on-line community in the formulation of ICANN
policies in order to find ways of accommodating the diversity of
cultures that influence the growth of the internet. This process
requires mechanisms for ensuring ICANN is accountable to individual
internet users and channels through which individual views can be
brought to the attention of the board.
ALSC chairman Carl Bildt commented:
"The internet needs to be structured to
serve users with diverse needs in every country and in a variety of
languages, and it needs to be able to accommodate future growth and
technical innovations. So too does ICANN."
Also published last week was an ICANN Internet Coordination
Policy that reiterated the organisation’s commitment to managing
its unique domain name system under policies created through
community processes that represent the public interest.
