The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and
Numbers this week put out the call for motivated voluntary
members of ICANN’s new Membership Implementation Task Force.
The task force will help ICANN to create a “broad, diverse, and globally
representative” At large membership, from which the organization will
choose one third of its directors. As follow-up to last year’s membership
advisory body, the task force will set up smaller groups to organize
recruitment and participation efforts in specific regions such as Asia
Pacific, Africa, Europe and Latin America.
Andrew McLaughlin, a senior advisor at ICANN who is charged with heading up
the task force, said the organization has been “flooded with
responses” in the nine hours since the notice was sent out.
The Membership Implementation Task Force is charged with recruiting general
members, designing membership guidelines, and developing a member election
system. ICANN’s president will have the option of expanding its
responsibilities towards the formation of the new membership.
The task force is also part of the ongoing effort to globalize ICANN’s
consensus-building activities. Funding has been set aside to translate
ICANN materials to bring more people into the discussion, said McLaughlin,
and interested parties will also be able to access translated materials on
the ICANN site in the near future.
Echoing ICANN’s acknowledged financial burden, the group is also expected
to develop a means of funding the at large membership.
The task force will focus on the “community of stakeholders”, or
businesses, consumers and others who are invested in the future of the
Internet, and intends to make the ICANN process open to all such interested
parties.
The concept of the task force was chartered at the August and November
ICANN board meetings. The job of task force chair is also open for
applicants. Statements of interest to join the task force will be accepted
until Dec. 21.