[announce] Fwd: ICANN Launches At Large Membership Study -- Carl Bildt to Chair Study Committee

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From icann-announce@icann.org Sat Jan 27 03:01 MET 2001
From: icann-announce@icann.org
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 17:59:50 -0800
To: "ICANN Announcement List" <icann-announce@icann.org>
Subject:  [icann-announce] ICANN Launches At Large Membership Study -- Carl Bildt to Chair Study Committee
Message-ID: <bulk.17816.20010126161820@mailhub.icann.org>

26 January 2001 (Marina del Rey, CA, USA) - The Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced today 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 will be announced at a later date.

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 1993-95, 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>.