[ga] U.S. Shut Out in First Round of Internet Board Elections

[Darrell Greenwood <darrell_greenwood@mindlink.net>]

     U.S. Shut Out in First Round of Internet Board Elections

     The United States has apparently been shut out in the first round
     of elections for seats on the Internet's new governing board.

     According to people close to the election process for the business
     constituency of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
     Numbers (ICANN), the vote for the last of its three seats is
     between a Canadian, a New Zealander and a Ghanaian.

     The outcome will likely raise eyebrows on Capitol Hill, where some
     congressmen have been concerned that the Clinton Administration's
     decision to hand administration of the Internet to the
     international nonprofit ICANN board is akin to giving away an
     American-built resource.

     Officials with the House Commerce Committee, who are closely
     watching both ICANN and the election process of its newly formed
     international membership groups, are said to be disturbed by the
     initial polling results. A committee spokesman, however, declined
     to comment.

     ICANN's Domain Name Supporting Organization, the business
     constituency, is the first group holding elections. Its 19-member
     Names Council plans to finish voting Wednesday. Last week it
     elected Alejandro Pisanty, a Mexican computer scientist, and Amadeu
     Abril i Abril, a Spanish law professor, to fill the other two
     seats.

     The finalists for its last seat are Jonathan Cohen, a trademark
     lawyer from Canada, Peter Dengate Thrush, a trademark lawyer from
     New Zealand, and Nii Quaynor, a computer scientist from Ghana,
     according to people involved in the process.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/cyber/capital/19capital.html

(second story)

--
Darrell Greenwood           mailto:Darrell_Greenwood@mindlink.net
Vancouver, BC               http://www.nyx.net/~dgreenw/