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ICANN BOARD AGREES WITH AT-LARGE REPORT PRINCIPLES, MOVES TOWARD FINAL ACTION Board invites comments on recommendations for global Internet user community involvement in ICANN, calls for work on implementation issues
November 15, Marina del Rey, CA -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors approved a resolution during its annual meeting today that took ICANN a step closer to resolving the long-standing issue of how to structure participation and representation of individuals from throughout the diverse global Internet user community ("At-Large constituency") within ICANN. The Board formally accepted the At-Large Study Committee's (ALSC) final report as a basis for further discussion, concurred with the ALSC's general conclusions, and called for continued work on implementation issues following from the report's recommendations. The 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. The Board agreed with the ALSC's conclusion that 1) individual Internet users have a significant stake in ICANN's activities, 2) individual users should have the opportunity to participate in ICANN, and 3) representation on the Board should accompany participation for informed, sustained involvement of interested individuals in ICANN policy and decision-making. The ALSC was asked to continue its investigation of the various practical implementation issues that will need to be addressed, should the Board adopt some or all of the final recommendations. The Board announced its intention to reach a decision on At-Large at the ICANN meeting in Accra, Ghana, in March 2002. "The ALSC is pleased the Board acknowledged the merits of our report and has set ICANN on a path towards a final decision on At-Large involvement in ICANN," said Carl Bildt, ALSC Chair. "We worked to find a solution that is broadly acceptable to most and that will give ICANN the stability it needs for its important work. This is not the time for experiments, but for solutions that really work. The world is more and more dependent on the Internet. This requires an ICANN that works with a governance structure that ensures transparency, accountability and stability, and we believe that our proposal will contribute to this. There is a need for everyone to be ready for compromise on an issue that has been divisive in the past, and we believe that our proposal represents the middle ground as well as being possible to implement." "We're delighted that the Board confirmed that we're heading in the right direction," said Esther Dyson, ALSC member. "Over the next few months, we need to focus on showing how these principles can be put into practice, getting support from and working with the involved communities, and designing processes to carry these principles out." The ALSC's final report was issued on November 5 and is widely available on the Internet (at www.atlargestudy.org). ABOUT THE ALSC ABOUT ICANN
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