Intellectual Property Law

ICANN: Contribute to the ALAC Review

By Wendy Seltzer

Every three years, ICANN’s bylaws call for the review of its component parts. The GNSO review produced many good recommendations for restructuring of the GNSO Council and its Policy Development Process.

The triennial wheel has turned to the At-Large Advisory Committee, and ICANN, through Westlake Consulting, is calling for input as they consider “whether the ALAC has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure; and, If so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness.”

ALAC exists “to consider and provide advice on the activities of ICANN, insofar as they relate to the interests of individual Internet users.” ALAC is supposed to be the Internet using public’s chief voice within ICANN. As ALAC’s liaison to the ICANN Board, I clearly believe that’s an important function. I also think ICANN could be doing better: I’d like to see that voice enhanced for members of the public concerned with topics such as availability of domain names in useful and non-English scripts, privacy in domain name registration, and security of Internet addresses.

If you’ve worked with ALAC or have ideas for facilitating public input to ICANN, I encourage you to get in touch with the review team. The more perspectives they hear, the better they can assess ALAC and offer recommendations.

Full post as published by Legal Tags on February 14, 2008 (boomark / email).