Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/10/25/icann_internationalises_as_us_candidates/

ICANN internationalises as US candidates miss election

But there's still some way to go...

By Graham Lea

Posted in On-Prem, 25th October 1999 09:24 GMT

US candidates have been rejected in the first round of new board elections for ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). The significance is that ICANN may end up not being under US control, as it has been, and will indeed evolve towards being an international body. At present, all five ICANN interim board members are from the USA. ICANN will play a major role in the future in the regulation of Internet names, so the political complexities are important. The Domain Name Supporting Organisation has now chosen three non-US members from 14 original candidates, four of whom were from the US. Prominent amongst those rejected were former Congressman Rick White, who was often called "the congressman from Microsoft". Nor did Donald Telage, a Network Solutions Inc VP, attract enough votes. NSI will be getting $6 for every .COM, .NET and .ORG, but not the $9 it sought. The successful candidates were Alejandro Pisanty, a Mexican academic who will serve a three-year term; Amadeu Abril i Abril a Spanish academic who gets two years; and Jonathan Cohen, a Canadian lawyer who will have power for just a year. The Internet Domain Name Owners organisation is not very happy at the latter two members, in a survey conducted before the DNSO vote. The Protocol Supporting Organisation and the Address Supporting Organisation have yet to vote, and there will also be votes for members-at-large. The next ICANN meeting will be in Los Angeles from 1-4 November, when it is to be hoped that the labyrinthine-structure will produce some concrete proposals for adoption. ®