| About
ICANN's At Large Membership Program
ICANN's
At Large Membership program is a new way for Internet users from
all over the globe to participate directly in the ICANN process.
The At Large Membership program is an experiment, giving interested
individuals a means to be informed about and connected to the policymaking
structure for the Internet's domain name and numbering systems.
From February
25 to July 31, 2000, ICANN's membership drive was overwhelmingly
successful-- over 158,000 individuals applied for At Large membership.
Of those, 76,000 activated their memberships by the September 8
deadline. For details on the membership registration drive, see
ICANN's July 31 announcement.
For membership application statistics, click
here.
The At Large
Members of ICANN will be participating in a historic first -- a
worldwide online election to choose Directors for the Internet's
private-sector technical coordinating body. The
basic rules and schedule
for this year's At Large elections were determined by the ICANN
Board at its July
meetings in Yokohama, Japan.
The nominations
process is now complete, with 27 total nominees in the five regions.
A set of 18 individuals was nominated by the Nominating Committee,
and an additional 9 individuals met the requirements for member-nomination.
Since September 9, the nominees have been participating in a voter
education and dialogue process, including an online Question
& Answer Forum.
The secure
online voting site is now open, until October 10 (midnight GMT/UTC).
An activated member can cast her/his vote by providing her/his member
number, password and PIN. Vote
now!
Following the
conclusion of the 2000 At Large membership election in November,
ICANN will initiate an open, comprehensive study
of the At Large membership structures and processes. The study will
be open to the participation of organizations and individuals worldwide.
At the same
time, any interested individual (including both At Large members
and non-members) is invited to take part in ICANN's open, transparent,
and bottom-up policy development process through the three specialized
Supporting Organizations: the Domain
Name Supporting Organization, the Address
Supporting Organization, and the Protocol
Supporting Organization.
Thanks to a
grant from the Markle
Foundation, the initial launch of ICANN's At Large Membership
program has been funded without the need for membership dues.
About
ICANN
The Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a technical
coordination body for the Internet. Created in October 1998 by a
broad coalition of the Internet's business, technical, academic,
and user communities, ICANN is assuming responsibility for a set
of technical functions previously performed under U.S. government
contract by IANA and other groups.
Specifically,
ICANN coordinates the assignment of the following identifiers that
must be globally unique for the Internet to function:
- Internet domain names
- IP address numbers
- protocol parameter and port numbers
In addition,
ICANN coordinates the stable operation of the Internet's root server
system.
As a non-profit,
private-sector corporation, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational
stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving
broad representation of global Internet communities; and to developing
policy through private-sector, bottom-up, consensus-based means. ICANN
welcomes the participation of any interested Internet user, business,
or organization. See http://www.icann.org.
For more background
about what ICANN does and how it does it, click here.
© 2000
Copyright by ICANN. All rights reserved.
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