Question: Do you think that it is ICANN's task to improve the internet-infrastructure in developing countries? If yes, how can ICANN support developing countries to build up the necessary technological and educational infrastructure?

Nominee Replies

Andy Mueller-Maguhn - posted on 2000-10-02 00:35:16 What ICANN currently cannot do very much is to support the building of internet-infrastructure in developing countries, that responsibility cannot be taken away from other organziations/governments/human beeings. What ICANN can do in this context is to keep the procedures for gaining names, numbers etc. as open and non-commercially orientated as possible and to support developing countries with a policy for ccTLD´s to allow open access for the citizens to this to avoid misuse through more-or-less-legitimated governments. Also, the legitimation of ICANN itself must also mean to invite developing countries to participate in the processes and communicate their needs to ICANN and other Internet related parties. Olivier Muron - posted on 2000-09-27 05:44:42 It is beyond ICANN's scope. Some entities like Internet Society have specific programs for education of IP technicians in developing countries. Concerning ICANN 'fee structure, I think that Internet developing countries should benefit from a fair method for the evaluation of fees, when a small level of activity is concerned. Winfried Schueller - posted on 2000-09-27 05:07:04 ICANN itself has not the aim to support developing countries to build up their internet infrastructure. ICANNs duty is to coordinate and manage the DNS and other technical internet resources. But therefore it is very important that decisions made by ICANN are also in the interest of developing countries. To ensure that no decisions are made which might prevent the development and the growth of the internet in developing countries, ICANN tries to involve as many people as possible in the decision making process, in particular people from developing countries. Jeanette Hofmann - posted on 2000-09-26 18:04:14 No, I think this is beyond ICANN's scope. As a general rule, ICANN should only take care of those functions that can't be delegated to other organizations. The success of the Net rests on its decentralized structure. We should do everything to make sure that ICANN complies with this tradition. Alf Hansen - posted on 2000-09-26 03:47:24 ICANN's way to contribute in this direction is to ensure that the developing countries are represented when decisions are made. Keyword: Diversity. It is not ICANN's responsibility to build up technical and educational infrastructure in any country.