ICANN Launches At-Large Membership Study
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently announced that it was commencing a comprehensive
study of the structure of its At Large membership. The study will be conducted by an At Large Membership Study Committee
that will make recommendations to ICANN's Board of Directors on how individuals can effectively participate in ICANN's policy
development, deliberations and actions for technical coordination of the Internet.
Mr. Carl Bildt, the former Prime Minister of Sweden and noted United Nations envoy, will serve as Chair of the nine member Study
Committee. An international statesman and information technology advisor, Bildt's current duties include Special Envoy of the
Secretary General of the United Nations to the Balkans, Member of Parliament of Sweden, and Advisor and Board Member of several
Internet and technology-related corporations.
"The Board's approval of the Study Committee and Carl Bildt's selection as Chair is a demonstration of ICANN's commitment to
finding an effective way for the perspectives of individuals in every country to be heard and given due consideration," said Vint
Cerf, Chairman of the ICANN Board of Directors. "We are extremely fortunate to have someone with Carl Bildt's international
consensus building experience to lead this critical effort."
The Committee, which is chartered to seek input from all interested parties and to work toward a broad consensus on ICANN's At
Large membership, will use multiple mechanisms for input, including public forums, mailing lists, and a public website. The
Committee will encourage the participation of organizations and individuals worldwide, including the development of independent
studies and analyses from across the global Internet's constituencies.
"ICANN's actions affect the whole world's Internet users, and I look forward to the challenging task of forging a consensus on the
best method for representing this ever-growing constituency," said Bildt. "This will be an international cooperative effort, and I
am counting on the participation of a diversity of Internet stakeholders that have an interest in ICANN to help us deliver a
workable solution."
The Board invited Charles Costello and Pindar Wong to serve as the Committee's Vice-Chairs. Costello is director of the Carter Center's Democracy Program, and served
as an outside monitor for ICANN's At Large elections held last year. Wong served as an ICANN Director and Vice Chairman of the Board during 1999-2000. He also is an
active Internet policy leader in the Asia Pacific Region, and Chairman of Verifi (Hong Kong) Ltd., an Internet infrastructure consultancy. The remaining members of the
committee are Pierre Dandjinou, Esther Dyson, Oliver Iteanu, Ching-Yi Lu, Thomas Niles, and Oscar Robles.
ICANN also announced the appointment of Denise Michel as the Committee's Executive Director. Ms. Michel has extensive experience in
both private and public sector technology policy development, having served previously on the staff of the U.S. National Science
Foundation, the American Electronics Association and the U.S. Department of Commerce. From 1993–1995, she was Sr. Technology
Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Ronald Brown.
Following public comment, the Board also adopted a charter for the study to ensure a consistent base of expectations on the scope
and details of the study committee's work. ICANN has posted the charter on its website at:
http://www.icann.org/committees/at-large-study/charter-22jan01.htm
Correction
In the article "The Trouble with NAT," which appeared in our previous issue, a table of private nonroutable IP addresses taken from
RFC 1918 was shown. The table contained an error, as pointed out by a couple of our readers. The correct table appears
below.
Class
Private Address Range
A
10.0.0.0 ... 10.255.255.255
B
172.16.0.0 ... 172.31.255.255
C
192.168.0.0 ... 192.168.255.255
Upcoming Events
The Internet Society (ISOC) will hold its annual conference INET in Stockholm, Sweden, June 5–8, 2001. For more information, see:
http://www.isoc.org/inet2001/
Just before INET, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will hold its meeting in the same venue. The
dates are June 1-4, 2001
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) will next meet in London, England, August 5–10. For more information, see:
http://www.ietf.org
The Internet Protocol Journal Ole J. Jacobsen , Editor and Publisher
Editorial Advisory Board Dr. Vint Cerf , Sr. VP, Internet Architecture and Engineering
MCI WorldCom, USA
David Farber
The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems
University of Pennsylvania, USA
Edward R. Kozel , Member of The Board of Directors
Cisco Systems, Inc., USA
Peter Lothberg , Network Architect
Stupi AB, Sweden
Dr. Jun Murai , Professor, WIDE Project
Keio University, Japan
Dr. Deepinder Sidhu , Professor, Computer Science & Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Director, Maryland Center for Telecommunications Research, USA
Pindar Wong , Chairman and President
VeriFi Limited, Hong Kong
The Internet Protocol Journal is published quarterly by the Chief Technology Office, Cisco Systems, Inc. www.cisco.com
Tel: +1 408 526-4000
E-mail: ipj@cisco.com
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