IP: "ICANN nominates 3 non-US board members to counter bias"

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

  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