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Volunteers Flood ICANN

Internet management organization expects to hit 5000 at-large members within a week.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

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The international nonprofit organization charged with managing the Internet is finding that a lot of people out there want to have a say. Last week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers launched a project to broaden its membership--to a healthy response.

Since opening its membership Web site on February 25, ICANN has received 2599 applications from users in North America, 656 from Europe, 315 from the Asia Pacific region, 66 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 38 from Africa, says Pindar Wong, chair of the Asia and Pacific Internet Association and a member of the ICANN board. He spoke at the APRICOT regional Internet conference in Seoul on Wednesday.

The group is aiming for 5000 at-large members and is on target to achieve this goal in time for its next meeting in Cairo, Egypt in March.

The new membership class allows individual Internet users to help shape the organization and influence some of the most pressing issues facing the Internet today. Although not receiving individual voices in the organization, at-large members will be able to collectively vote for directors to be appointed to the ICANN board, and will receive regular updates on its activities.

The organization was formed in September 1998 to take over various administrative activities associated with the Internet. The group works in three main areas: coordinating the domain name system, allocating Internet protocol addresses, and managing the root server system.

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