I currently volunteer my services to the local planning board - the grassroots level of government in New York City - and am developing a communications centered web site for NYC's community planning boards. Our goal is to make the net a tool for improved self-governance.

I've developed interactive technologies since the late 1970's. My earliest efforts were on developing public service applications for cable TV systems. My best work there focused on traffic management.

In the early 1980's I developed public information kiosks for Infopoint, a public kiosk provider at the Louisiana World's Fair. I then spent an ungodly amount of time on a failed effort to install a network of public kiosks in New York City.

After graduate school (a masters in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU) I developed marketing disks for online services, profiting with clients like NYNEX (now Verizon) and Citibank.

In the late 1980's I published QWIX Guide To Online Services, the first, to my knowledge, online guide to online services. (For you techies, QWIX operated over the X.25 standard.)

I've also worked on information architecture design projects for companies like Rueben H. Donnelly and a host of smaller firms.

I've provided internet services, and been involved with the internet governance process since 1998.

I've many disagreements with the current board. But I've been both an initiator of change and am capable of working with diverse interests.

What's not Internet related? I live in a co-op and if we don't get improved Internet service that investment, my largest, will be diminished.

Our local schools are investing in technology by the pound rather than curriculums that intelligently use the Internet.

And I would not own a stock that did not have an Internet plan. Indeed, any firm without one is or soon will be bankrupt.

But I don't have direct "conflict of interest" type investments in ICANN businesses, nor am I on one's payroll.

What will the ICANN do with its global power? Some see it dividing the Internet into zones - much like the FCC created the AM, FM, and Short Wave radio bands in the 1930s. One zone might be commercial - free, like American TV, and reachable by every PC, laptop, and "Internet Appliance" made. And another, less accessible zone for individuals, civic groups, churches, governments, environmentalists, artists, community organizations, unions, ethnic groups… To reach this zone's web sites you might need to pay a fee, install special software, use special search engines, and even then not receive the same quality programming available "free" via the commercial zone.

The business interests that now control the ICANN will deny such plans. They'll say it's just a technical organization. But these are not ignorant people. They know our world doesn't run haphazardly. They're paid by business to serve business needs.

There's a better way to run the Internet. Here are some changes I'd like to see:

Let's start by renaming the ICANN - call it the Internet Governance Council.

Let's increase the number of board seats that represent the public. (The business interests that control the ICANN are now looking to reduce the public's representation!)

Let's acknowledge that the Internet has an enormous impact on all aspects of society; and insist that the social, economic, and environmental consequences of design changes be fully considered by the public and the board.

Let's explore technical changes that would make the Internet geographically aware, so that local businesses and organizations can better use its resources.

Let's insist on independent review mechanisms - a separation of powers.

Let's issue top level domains to reflect additional cultures and geographic entities and ones that better reflect use, e.g., .library, .auto, .school, .bank, .city…

Remember, your family is ICANN-related. Your community is ICANN-related. Your job is ICANN-related - especially if it's a small business.

Put me on ICANN's Board of Directors and I'll look out for families, communities, small businesses…

In the US, TV and radio were turned over to commercial interests. I want the Internet to benefit local communities.