[Sydney, AUSTRALIA] Australians will be able to participate in
an online election, choosing five directors to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) board, which is responsible for administering domain
names globally.
Members of ICANN’s At Large Membership can become part of what the
corporation calls a “bottom up approach” to policy making.
Senator Richard Alston encouraged Australians to sign on, saying that ICANN
is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet to
promote competition and achieve a broad representation of the Internet
community. “Australians are among the most prolific users of the Internet
in the world – this is a chance for us to actively participant [sic] in
Internet development,” he said.
The membership is closed to those under 16, anyone else with an e-mail
address can join. The five directors will be selected regionally, with one
from each of: Africa, Asia, Latin America/Caribbean and North America.