Share your views with the At-Large Study Committee in Silicon Valley

The ALSC invites all interested individuals (with the requisite Internet access/tools*) who are unable to attend in person to listen to our August 13 outreach meeting on the Internet in real-time. Instructions to access the meeting:

STREAMING AUDIO ACCESS INFORMATION:
1. Establish your Internet connection (August 13, no earlier than 15:45 Pacific Time).
2. Launch (start) your Internet browser (make sure your security level is set to "medium" or lower).
3. Go to http://www.e-meetings.wcom.com
4. Click on "Attend a Webcast" (in the column on the right).
5. From the "Audio Streaming/Replay" menu, select "Leader/Participant Join".
6. Enter the "Conference ID" 8068204; enter the "Conference Passcode" ICANN; enter "participant information" (your name and email address**), and click on "Proceed".
* See: http://www.e-meetings.wcom.com/webcast/requirements.php3
** This information will be reviewed by the ALSC to help determine the utility of audio streaming for future meetings, and will then be destroyed.

Please join us to discuss how ICANN should involve and represent the global "user community." The ALSC's Discussion Paper #1 (and follow-up documents) regarding the views, questions and options under consideration by the ALSC will be the focus of this meeting. Dan Gillmor, Technology Columnist, San Jose Mercury News, will moderate a discussion with the audience, panelists representing a range of experiences and views, and the ALSC Members (all of whom will be in attendance).

Pre-registration for this meeting is requested to ensure that we are able to accommodate all attendees. Please fill out the form below if you plan to attend.

Additional information on this meeting has been emailed to our announce list and will be available soon on this webpage. All interested individuals are encouraged to participate in this meeting. If you will need translation assistance, or you would like to volunteer to be a translator at this meeting, please send an email to dmichel@atlargestudy.org and we will try to accommodate you. If you are unable to attend, please send your thoughts/questions to us in an email via our on-line forum at http://www.atlargestudy.org/forum.shtml or send them to comments@atlargestudy.org.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The At-Large Study Committee: Carl Bildt (Chair), Chuck Costello (Vice Chair), Pierre Dandjinou, Esther Dyson, Olivier Iteanu, Ching-Yi Liu, Thomas Niles, Oscar Robles, and Pindar Wong (Vice Chair).

Agenda: How to achieve "At-Large" representation and participation in ICANN

4:00 Welcome, introductions by Carl Bildt, ALSC Chair

4:15 Panel #1: What is an At-Large Member? What rights and responsibilities should At- Large Members have?

Panel: Dan Gillmor (moderator), Barbara Simons, Ellen Rony, Kent Crispin (Opening comments by panelists, follow-up questions by moderator, then audience and ALSC members are invited to participate.)

This is a panel-led, audience discussion about the potential ways of defining and implementing At-Large membership. Discussions will address who should be (and who wants to be) involved in ICANN, whether membership should come with any requirements or fees (how to encourage and fund efforts of informed and committed members), and specifically what rights and responsibilities should be conferred on an At-Large membership?

Panelists will give brief remarks to help meeting participants address relevant questions, such as: How should an At-Large member be defined -- from the "open to anyone who's interested" model, to specific ppmembership criteria and fees -- from "individuals only" to membership that includes non-profit and commercial entities. What are positive and negative repercussions of proposed definitions? What should an At- Large member's rights be and how can those rights be protected through At-Large membership participation and representation schemes? Should membership come with some responsibilities, such as knowledge of ICANN's mission, or participation in discussions and decision-making? How should such responsibilities be fulfilled by a global membership? Should there be any membership requirements or fees (and if so should the fees be scaled)?

5:45 Break (refreshments)

6:15 Panel #2: How should an At-Large membership be incorporated in ICANN's structure (for representation and participation)?

Panel: Dan Gillmor (moderator), Jonathan Weinberg, Deborah Kaplan, Daniel Ben-Horin (Opening comments by the panelists, follow-up questions by moderator, then audience and ALSC members are invited to participate.)

This is a panel-led, audience discussion about how to specifically structure At-Large representation and participation in ICANN. Discussions will address the best methods for At-Large members to be involved in ICANN's decision-making process and how they should be represented in ICANN's decision-making structure, particularly on ICANN's Board of Directors.

Panelists will give brief remarks to help meeting participants address relevant questions, such as: What new processes and structures are needed within ICANN for At-Large member involvement? Do ICANN's existing Supporting Organizations need to be changed to accommodate At-Large member participation? Should a country or region-level or other kind of structure be created to facilitate At-Large involvement? How many At-Large Directors should serve on ICANN's Board and how should they be selected? What lessons have been learned from last year's direct election of At-Large Directors, and from At- Large processes/structures (inside and outside ICANN)?

7:45 Closing remarks, Carl Bildt and ALSC Members

8:00 Adjourn

.........................................................................

Biographies of panelists

Dan Gilmore is technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. He also writes a daily Web-based column for SiliconValley.com, a KnightRidder.com site that is an online affiliate of the Mercury News. His column runs in many other U.S. newspapers, and he appears regularly on radio and television including National Public Radio's Morning Edition and CNN. Gillmor joined the Mercury News in September 1994 after about six years with the Detroit Free Press. Before that, he was with the Kansas City Times and several newspapers in Vermont. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Vermont, Gillmor received a Herbert Davenport fellowship in 1982 for economics and business reporting at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. During the 1986-87 academic year he was a journalism fellow at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he studied history, political theory and economics. He has won several state and regional journalism awards.

Barbara Simons was elected President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) from July 1998 until June 2000. She founded and co-chairs ACM's US Public Policy Committee (USACM). She is on the Board of Directors of the U.C. Berkeley Engineering Fund and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, as well as the Advisory Board of Zeroknowledge. Simons earned her Ph.D. in computer science from U.C. Berkeley, worked at IBM Research for many years, holds several patents, and has authored numerous technical papers. Simons is a Fellow of ACM and of American Association for the Advancement of Science. She received the Alumnus of the Year Award from the Berkeley Computer Science Department, the Norbert Wiener Award from CPSR, and the Pioneer Award from EFF. She was selected by c|net as one of its 26 Internet "Visionaries" and by Open Computing as one of the "Top 100 Women in Computing". Science Magazine featured her in a special edition on women in science. Simons currently serves on the President's Export Council's Subcommittee on Encryption. She has testified before both the U.S. and the California legislatures and at government sponsored hearings. She placed second in the first election for the North America seat on the ICANN Board.

Ellen Rony is co-author of The Domain Name Handbook: High Stakes and Strategies in Cyberspace, published by R&D Books. This 645-page treatise provides a practical history of domain name policies, protocols, disputes and initiatives, as well as detailed guidance on the domain name registration process of Network Solutions, Inc. Rony has monitored the evolution of the domain name system on a daily basis for 5.5 years. She served as a scribe for the International Forum on the White Paper in the summer of 1998 and was a signatory to the Boston Working Group Bylaws Proposal submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce on September 28, 1998. In January of 1999, she launched a campaign calling for ICANN to open its board meetings to the public. In March of 1999, she testified before the World Intellectual Property Organization for its first study on the administration of domain names. Rony maintains a website at DOMAINHANDBOOK.COM, with extensive links to Congressional policies, news reports, domain name disputes, and the activities of ICANN. She also provides domain litigation support and has been qualified in federal court to appear as an expert witness on domain names. She testified in the celebrated SEX.COM dispute which resulted in a $65 million plaintiff's judgment. Rony has two decades of experience in the computer industry. She has held positions in communication management, marketing administration, public relations and technical writing. She currently operates the Alexander Works in Marin County, California, providing Internet training to local clients and domain name dispute consultation. Rony holds a Master of Arts degree in Communication from Stanford University and a Bachelor's degree from Pomona College. She resides in Tiburon, California.

Kent Crispin is a Computer Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, working in the Security Technologies Group. He has been the individual registrant of the domain "songbird.com" since 1995, and has been involved in domain name issues since 1996. He was Chair of the Policy Advisory Body and a member of the Policy Oversight Committee of the gTLD- MoU. He provided technical support to ICANN for the At-Large membership registration and voting process, has provided the technical support for elections for two DNSO constituencies, and has implemented several email or web based voting systems.

Jonathan Weinberg is a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He has been a legal scholar in residence at the FCC's Office of Plans and Policy; a visiting scholar at Cardozo Law School; a professor in residence at the U.S. Justice Department; a visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies; a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; and a law clerk to then-judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In 1999-2000, Jon chaired the Domain Name Supporting Organization's Working Group C, which had the job of developing recommendations on the creation of new generic top-level domains.

Deborah Kaplan is Executive Director of the World Institute on Disability (WID), a public policy, research and training center in Oakland, California. WID serves as the policy arm of the disability rights and independent living movement at the national level, as well as internationally. As Executive Director, Ms. Kaplan is involved in a wide variety of disability policy initiatives and also operates as CEO of the organization. She received a law degree from Boalt Hall at U.C. Berkeley in 1976. After that, she founded the Disability Rights Center in Washington, D.C. with support from Ralph Nader. She has also served as a staff attorney at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and has worked in private practice. Most recently, she was Vice President for West Coast Operations for Issue Dynamics, Inc., a consulting firm. At WID, Ms. Kaplan directed the Division on Technology Policy before becoming the Executive Director. Her work focused on ensuring that new information and communication technologies will be accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities at the policy level. The Clinton Administration appointed her to its National Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee, which presented its recommendations and report to the President and Vice President in January, 1996. She is a founder of the Alliance for Public Technology. Ms. Kaplan has served on the National Governing Board of Common Cause, on the American Bar Association's Commission on Disability Law, and was a founding Board member of the Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America. She is currently President of the Board of the Center for the Common Good in Oakland, California and Secretary for the Board of the American Association of Persons with Disabilities. She is also a member of Pacific Bell's Advisory Group for Persons with Disabilities.

Daniel Ben-Horin, President and Founder of CompuMentor Equipped with $2,500 in seed funding, Daniel Ben-Horin created CompuMentor, one of the nation's first nonprofit technology assistance providers, in 1987. For the past 14 years, he has been guiding the evolution of this nonprofit, which today has a budget of more than $3.5 million. From 1980-84, Ben-Horin served as the Executive Director of Media Alliance in San Francisco during which period he also taught journalism at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prior to this assignment, Ben-Horin spent more than ten years writing for The New York Times, The Nation, Harper's Weekly, Mother Jones, Redbook and many other publications.