February 7, 2001 Overview of the NGO and Academic ICANN Study

February 7, 2001

The NGO and Academic ICANN Study

An International Investigation of ICANN's At Large Membership and Elections

Winter 2001

An international team of academics and non-governmental organisations has launched an interdisciplinary effort to review the At Large elections and future governance structure of ICANN, the global body that manages the Internet's central domain name system.

The NGO and Academic ICANN Study (NAIS) is an independent response to ICANN's call for a comprehensive study of the concept, structure and processes relating to an At Large election and selection of ICANN Board of Directors. The study effort will operate in conjunction with ICANN's own study efforts during the first half of 2001, with the goal of producing a final report by June 2001.

Background: Last year ICANN's At Large membership, numbering over 70,000, elected five new Directors. The selection of Directors for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) - and the public's role in that process - has been a subject of great debate. Now ICANN has called for a "clean-sheet" study of the election process and the role and composition of its At Large Directors, due by the June ICANN Board meeting in Stockholm.

Last November in Los Angeles, the Board determined that such a study should be undertaken by a Study Committee separate from the ICANN Board but with broad participation by other groups, encouraging them to undertake their own analyses for use in the consensus development process. This study aims to offer an independent and in-depth review of the At Large membership to enable such a consensus. The NAIS project was created from the assumption that an At Large Study should be international, comparative, and grounded in the public's interest in ICANN, as to be inclusive of all regional experiences and viewpoints

Underlying Study Principles: Although NAIS's effort is a "clean sheet" study in the sense that it will examine fundamental questions, it is grounded in common beliefs about the importance of appropriate representation in ICANN's decision-making processes. The members of NAIS are linked by certain underlying principles regarding ICANN, including:

ICANN's central position within the Internet's architecture, and its actions now and in the future, makes its decisions of broad interest to the Internet user community and the public.
The public interest in ICANN's decisions must be recognized in its Board selection process and its decision-making processes, as appropriate based on ICANN's mission.
These internal governance processes of ICANN should reflect principles of openness, accountability, participation, transparency, and legitimacy in order to take account of the public impact of ICANN's decisions.

Participants: The core group of the NAIS project comprises experienced researchers from nine organizations worldwide with substantial expertise in ICANN. Group members come from each of ICANN's five geographic regions, and include:

Izumi Aizu, Principle, Asia Network Research
Jerry Berman, Executive Director, Alan Davidson, Associate Director, and Rob Courtney, Policy Analyst, Center for Democracy and Technology, USA
Adam Peake, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM), International University of Japan.
Christian Ahlert, Center for Interactive Media, University of Giessen, Germany
Scott Harshbarger, President, Don Simon, General Counsel, and Andy Draheim, Senior Policy Analyst, Common Cause, USA
Raúl Echeberría, Instituto Nacional de Investigatión Agropecuaria, Uruguay
Clement Dzidonu, President and CEO, International Institute for Information Technology (INIIT), Ghana
Stefaan Verhulst, Director, Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, Oxford University, UK
Myungkoo Kang, Department of Communication, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
Jeanette Hofmann, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin/NEXUS, Germany

Workplan: The NAIS project will be based on the creation and implementation of a uniform research template which aims to identify a set of basic At Large parameters and their interrelationships, review the At Large election process, and compare differences and similarities regionally. Major elements will include:

Creation of the Study Template, outlining a research methodology that will be a starting point for regional implementation as well as for use by groups interested in conducting their own study.
Quantitative review of data retrieved from ICANN's election and registration servers, along with analysis of the election experience of users worldwide.
Substantial outreach to the Internet community, to identify and catalog experiences with last year's election, as well as to solicit views about the future of ICANN's membership and Board.
A public workshop in Melbourne, Australia, to seek input into the NAIS project, review interim findings, and promote a public dialogue. NAIS's Final Report on last year's election and on the At Large Membership will be released at the June ICANN meeting in Stockholm, Sweden.

NAIS is consensus- and best practice-oriented, as to develop a constructive dialogue among all stakeholders. We hope to achieve a willingness among these stakeholders to contribute to this crucial and timely research process, and to ultimately inform a broad consensus on the legitimate governance structure for ICANN.

For more information: about the NGO and Academic ICANN Study, please contact:

Alan Davidson, Project Coordinator, +1 202-637-9800 abd@cdt.org
Don Simon, Project Coordinator, +1 202-682-0242 dsimon@sonosky.com
Stefaan Verhulst, Research Coordinator, +44 1865 284 481 pcmlp@csls.ox.ac.uk