Originator: --- (APC)
Date: 2000/07/29
Country: GERMANY
Source: APC

PRESS RELEASE

For: The Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Presidio Building 1012, Torney Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94129, USA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TECHNICAL PROBLEMS PLAGUING GLOBAL INTERNET ADMINISTRATOR COULD ADVERSELY AFFECT INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY’S PARTICIPATION IN ICANN PROCESS

Hanover, Germany, July 29 – On the eve of the deadline for voter registration in the first Internet governance elections, a small Internet Service Provider (ISP) in Germany appears to have proved that server congestion at the ICANN registration site could have been avoided and voter participation diversified. Christian Schulze, computer technician at the non-profit ISP, ComLink, spent little more than two hours yesterday to come up with an alternative registration form which bypasses ICANN’s troubled server and registers prospective voters almost instantly.  Yesterday and today, NGOs and other users were hurrying to use Schulze’s quick fix to register new at-large members before the July 31 deadline.  However, online social justice and Internet rights groups fear that it is too late to ensure wide-spread and diverse civil society participation in this election  -- ICANN’s attempt to address public concern about corporate domination of its board.

ICANN, an NGO set up by the US government to control domain names and addresses on the World Wide Web, recently created five new at-large positions on its governing board, to be filled by candidates nominated and voted by Internet users world-wide. ICANN set up a sophisticated online registration database to process voters.  However, the system has been plagued by ‘The server is busy – try again later’ messages.

ComLink and Christian decided to tackle the problem after hearing concerns from fellow members at the Assocation for Progressive Communications (APC), an international community of organizations who use the Internet for human rights, environment and development work.  “I filled out the ICANN registration form on three different days, tried accessing the form at different times, and each time I got the ‘server overloaded’ message,” said Carmen Orguet, of the Third World Institute in Uruguay, South America.  Yesterday, on her first attempt using the form provided by ComLink, Orguet finally managed to become an ICANN at-large member.  She received verification of her registration from ICANN almost immediately, even though it had not gone through the official ICANN site.

“It took Christian two hours to be able to provide people with a quick and efficient way of registering to vote in the ICANN elections. Why couldn’t ICANN do that?” asked Karen Higgs, communications manager at the APC. “ICANN must take into account the different connectivity conditions people face when using the Internet, if they truly want to diversify their member base as they claim. Outside of North America, people often pay their dial-up connection to the Internet by the minute, so they just can’t afford either the time or the money to contact the ICANN site multiple times to register. In the end, they just give up.” 

The alternative registration site for ICANN at-large registration is located at ComLink:  http://www.comlink.org/icann/icann.php3

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Contact: 

Maureen James, APC
Tel: +1 416 516-8138 (Canada EST - GMT -5)
Tel: +1 416 317-5681
Fax: +1 416 531-1632
Email: maureen@web.apc.org

Christian Schulze, ComLink, APC member in Germany
Tel: +49 511 - 161 31 73 (Germany GMT +1)
Tel: +49 511 - 71 00 736
Fax: +49 511 - 165 26 11             
Fax: +49 511  - 169 69 55
Email: christian@comlink.org

For more information on ICANN:
http://www.icann.org
http://www.ICANNwatch.org
http://www.apc.org/english/rights/governance/  - multilingual

ABOUT APC

APC (founded 1990) was the first globally interconnected NGO network of groups working for peace, human rights, development and protection of the environment. Though trivial from today's perspective, offering e-mail and computer conferencing services to civil society in the late 1980s and early 1990s marked a huge leap into the future. There was no better or more cost-effective way at the time for activists to get their messages out to the world.

Now, 10 years later, APC is still going strong and still pioneering new ways for civil society to use the Internet strategically. Members and partners across the world continue to work together online, now moving into new areas like freedom of expression on the Internet, and the role of information and communication technology in developing countries. Our network of members and partners spans the globe, with presence in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. APC: http://www.apc.org.

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of APC. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit APC.

Distributed by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
Presidio Building 1012 Torney Avenue P.O. Box 29904 San Francisco, CA 94129 USA
Tel: +1 416 516-8138 (Note: Toronto, Canada)
Fax: +1 416 516-0131 (Note: Toronto, Canada)
E-mail: apcadmin@apc.org
Website: http://www.apc.org/