[ga] Comments of MdR meeting participants from Asia, Africa and EastEuropean countries on ALSC Final Report!

[Chun Eung Hwi <ehchun@peacenet.or.kr>]

Comments on the ALSC Final Report in the name of some participants in the
Marian del Rey 2001 ICANN meeting, mainly from countries in the early
stages of Internet development (Nov. 15, 2001)

We hold the opinion that the allocation of nine Board seats, to be filled
by elections by the At-Large Membership is fundamentally important to
maintain the participatory bottom-up structure of ICANN, as originally
envisioned. 

To limit the At-Large Membership to domain name holders would - in terms
of the economic and regulatory environments in many of our countries -
immediately exclude citizens of our countries from participation.

If a balance of seats between board members elected by internet users and
board members nominated by the internet suppliers groups is not achieved,
the present unbalanced composition of the ICANN Board is threatening the
legitimacy of ICANN as a whole.

The proposed principle of checks and balances between users, developers,
and providers looks arbitrary and is not clear, as there are overlaps
between developers and providers; moreover, it is not clear in the ALSC
report which group is to be considered under which criteria. On the other
hand, the structures of users versus suppliers, or of customers versus
producers, is clear and a generally well known method of balancing
interests. We cannot find in the ALSC report any convincing reason why the
present 9 to 9 system is to be changed. A change of this 9 to 9 split is
not representing a consensus in the internet community.

To avoid the financial burden of centralized at-large elections, we
propose a regionally diversified at-large election procedure.
Specifically, we recommend that the presently elected at-large directors
initiate organizing regional at-large councils in consultation with
existing and concerned groups and individuals that can assist in providing
logistic and financial support for organizing regional internet user's
participation in the ICANN process. Also the different possible models -
e-mail address holders, without Web access or Web presence, or domain name
holders - could be selected as membership criteria. 

We therefore strongly plead for maintaining an At-Large structure where
the internet community in many developing countries is not excluded from
participation, to initiate the possibility for new At-Large members to
register, to elect the remaining 4 directors also from four regions in
rotated order, and to retain 9 seats for board members to be elected by
the At-Large Membership. In each term, every region which has two
directors will be chosen to fill the position of the region with only one
director in the previous term
 
As new elections for the presently serving 5 at-large director positions
are due to be held in 2002, time is running and urgent actions are needed.


23 Participants from Africa, Asia and East European Countries

Asomiddin Atoev / Tajikistan
Charles Musisi / Uganda 
Christina Haralanova / Bulgaria
Chun Eung Hwi / Korea
Daniel Yakmut Inusa / Nigeria
Gilbert Lumantao / Phillipines
Hakikur Rahman / Bangladesh
Jeonghye Choi / Korea
Maman Sani Zakari / Niger
Mariusz Kondrat / Poland
Nino Kunstseva-Gabashvili / Georgia
Nobert Klein / Cambodia
Paulos Nyirenda / Malawi 
Perpetus Jacques Houngbo / Benin
Rajesh Sharma / Thailand
Slobodan Markovic / Yugoslavia
Thierry Amoussougbo / Benin
Toshimaru Ogura / Japan
Valerie Gordon / Jamaica
William Tevie / Ghana
Xoliswa Kakana / South Africa
Yashar Hajiyev / Azerbaijan
Zenaida Ugart / Phillipines


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