ICANN Board Election

Purdyman writes: "TomPaine.com has a David Corn opinion piece about the upcoming ICANN board member election. He more or less says that 1) it's important and 2) it could be structured better. So, how important is it? What happens if the ICANN board (or at least the at-large portion) becomes corporate-dominated? How about consumer-dominated? Also, how should the election be structured? For example, the method of nominating candidates seems like it could be abused fairly easily if desired; how would you fix it?" This isn't the first time we've heard about these elections.

Comments

Not the perfect solution....

[Frymaster]

Okay, perhaps this is not the perfect solution... however at present it presents the only vaguely-workable solution to the domain name disaster we are experiencing. A lot of people on this site have voiced some very strong opinions and some very viable ideas on solutions. ICANN is sure as hell not lurking /. to come up with policy... so take your ideas and opinions to the source. The worst that can happen is that they are ignored. If you don't sign up, you're gauranteed that your ideas/opinions will be ignored. Most notably, I expect that the people who had good ideas about tlds to sign up. In case you have forgotten who you are, here's the list:
SlushDot
Colin Smith
Montressor
m.o
alarmo
Snarfangel
dsplat
Mr Z
CoughDropAddict
Greyfox
kerrbear
mtphoto

Additionally, there are several folks who have voiced very strong and (sometimes) very well reasoned opinions about domain name administration. I would like to remind said folks again that, while we enjoy your input here, it has zero chance of making an impact on reality if stays on slashdot. If said people need to be reminded of their identities, they are:
JohnJake
Duane Dibbley
DHartung
titus-g
cd_Csc
chrome koran
robman
haplo21112
hidden
Garry Anderson

Lastly, remember that since ICANN is not inviting you specifically to join, a vote of abstention (by not joining) will go unheard.... and if anyone has a better, workable solution, speak it.

Fixing the TLD mess

[ocelotbob]

This whole Bull$hit over who controls domain names is getting out of hand. There are companies out there, Proctor and Gamble being the worst offender, that register hundreds, even thousands of domain names such that they can make money selling their product. Then, they do the same thing over every imaginable domain. Now, it's not to late to fix it, but we've got to act soon in order to keep things from getting even more crazy.

The way I see it, the following needs to be done:

• Have as many tech people join the ICANN @ Large program. The only way to change things is to vote, and to vote your conscience.
• Have profiles of people running for the board. What are their stands on domainjacking, multiple registrations, etc? What is their internet experience? These are rather important questions.
• Change the domain name system. Either go to the older UK style of TLD, SLD, Subdomain, add more domains, make it so the person who registers domain.com not able to register domain.net, or make one entity, corporate or individual only able to have a certain amount of domains per TLD.

Fortunately, the DNS system is not irreperable yet, but if we don't act soon, twenty yearrs from now we could be sitting around asking "Remember the Internet?" while munching on our soylent green.

Two errors of fact in article

[Froomkin]

The article gets two facts wrong:

1. The US government remains in charge of the DNS. ICANN is just its agent, by contract. The contracts expire in a few months, but are renewable. The US government can under the current contracts take back all power and terminate ICANN's authority. The government wishes to downpeadal this, both to avoid being held responsible for ICANN and to lessen attention to the issue of renewing or even expanding ICANN's role this fall.
2. It is not correct that "Nine of its board members are chosen by organizations that run the technical side of the Internet." Even if one accepted this fits the PSO, and the ASO, it cannot by any analysis fit the DNSO - which is the business constituency, and has NO technical element AT ALL.

Please visit ICANNWatch.org
A. Michael Froomkin,
U. Miami School of Law,POB 248087
Coral Gables, FL 33124,USA

Re:Have you all gotten you're cards?

[gilroy]

Blockquoth the poster:

The best advice I can give you is to be patient and don't hold your breath.

Actually, now is the time to start hunting down what happened. Events are beginning to move, and the @Large group said everyone should have received at least an email confirmation. Try contacting them at support@members.icann.org or visit the site at https://members.icann.org.

Re:Operator Bilkmore Oh six one please...

[FigWig]

Wow, that's a completely brilliant idea! Just keep that in mind the next time you move your machine to a different subnet.

Uh-huh.

[alexburke]

I prefer Coca-Cola as well (I'm even a shareholder), but this post's parent is the most absurd thing I've read on Slashdot yet.

Thank you.

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Have you all gotten you're cards?

[delmoi]

I signed up for the member-at-large position, but I don't belive that I've ever gotten a conformation-slip. Have other people actualy gotten them?

Election Rules

[YIAAL]

Corn is certainly right that this issue deserves more attention. Such matters are not as sexy as some, (not entirely by accident: both Scott Adams and P.J. O'Rourke have pointed out that politics is made boring to facilitate insder control) but potentially important. Though I am not convinced that ICANN is going to be capable of doing all that much good OR harm. My guess is that like all other governing bodies it will be playing catch-up. Am I too optimistic? Or does this count as pessimism?

ICANN Has Waning Importance

[khog]

Face it: with the entirety of Europe spitting in ICANN's face, it seems to have a rather limited lifetime. The Internet, once regarded as a transcendant, borderless entity (regardless of actual physical limitations and boundaries) ungovernable by any single nation, will be a hell of a lot better. ICANN...well, it can't; it's a joke.

On a slightly related topic, the entire domain-name industry is in extreme disarray, possibly irreversibly. Reorganization is too difficult; it's too late...perhaps a newer, better, system will come around (maybe SUN/Java-style package naming: COM.software.microsoft, or EDU.harvard.law) that will fix things in that respect, but I doubt it.

Sure, and Bell/AT&T was insignificant too.

[Myself]

I'm not sure either whether it counts as optimism or pessimism. Look at how much wall street has fallen in love with the phrase "dot com". ICANN's role in the future could actually matter a lot. They could do a great deal of good, evil, or nothing. My guess is evil, unless we get some really great people on the board. That's why it bugs me that, as the article points out, there's no big education campaign to see who the candidates are and where they stand. How about a temporary, special section of Slashdot, with weekly interviews of the top 20 or 30 candidates? I bet someone with server space and bandwidth out there is just dying to download Slashcode and set this up. (Yeah, I'm karma whoring. But I legitimately think it might work!)

ICANN Losing Credibility

[alexburke]

This is an excellent article highlighting the tremendous responsibilities that ICANN now has on its shoulders.

At the very least, ICANN will be implementing an online voting system for the ICANN At Large members, which should help speed things up. Considering some of their deadlines are as soon as September (yes, 2000), I certainly hope they don't fsck things up by dropping the ball.

Considering how dependent the world now is on the Internet, I think a crisis could occur on a global scale if ICANN doesn't live up to the world's expectations.

(Can anyone say revolution?)

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This could be the most important net development

[PacketMaster]

This could be one of the most important net developments in the last few years. Whether net users want to admit it or not, ICANN has sweeping powers that could make life a lot more complicated and annoying for us. It's easy for people to spout off the "Oh! It's all about big business and it's a sham..." but it DOES have a mandate and control. This is not an issue to be taken lightly. EVERY SINGLE /. MEMBER needs to sign up for the At-Large program and make their voices heard. Big business ultimately won't bite the hand the makes it profitable -- the individual users.

Scary

[Duncan3]

It concerns me greatly that what was once a benevolent dictatorship under the brilliant and wise Dr. Jon Postel, is now a beurocratic quasi-democracy of 16 year olds without any understanding of deeply technical issues. Or worse, companies with everything but the interests of the whole in mind. Is there even the remotest possibility this is a good thing?

Ignoring the profoundly trivial issues like if we should add .sex or .web to the Network Solutions monopoly first, forcing everyone to pay up or get squatted. Do we want "Internet users" making important decisions based on who kisses the most babies or has a cuter butt, rather then solid scientific research and debate? Will we soon have an ICANN president sneaking around with interns and running IP-block deals with crooked loans?

I better shut up before my domains start turning up "lost" yet again and get auctioned off.

Operator Bilkmore Oh six one please...

[BlackHat]

Just waiting for this whole insane idea of "plain text domains" to go the way of Phone System.

Links are so encapsulated now so what is the point of plain text? It aint gonna bring "Brand Awarness" if its hidden in the damn HREF. Just use IP number and be done with it.

Dinos of the New Age Roar, Sour Geek Yawns!