UPDATE: ICANN At Large Nominations Period Nears Conclusion

The nominations period of ICANN's At Largemembership election process will conclude tomorrow, September8, midnight GMT. September 8 also marks the deadline for membershipapplicants to activate their memberships, allowing them to castballots in this year's round of elections.

The next stage of the At Large processwill be the voter education and dialogue phase. Starting September9, the ICANN website will feature a basic webpage for each nominee(including links to their own websites), and a Question &Answer Forum to facilitate public dialogue among the nomineesand the At Large members. The voting period will run from October1 - 10.

• Brief History of the Nominations Process

The nominations process began in May 2000,when the Nominating Committeeissued a public open callfor recommendations and expressions of interest, along withits criteria of selection. Over the next two months, the NomComreceived communications from over 400 individuals worldwide.On July 31, the Nominating Committee announceda set of 18 nominees.

On August 1, the member-nominationphase began. A total of 161 individuals put their names forwardas candidates for member-nomination: 3 in Africa; 24 in Asia/Australia/Pacific;74 in Europe; 7 in Latin America/Caribbean; and 53 in North America.Starting August 15, activated At Large members could make anendorsement of a candidate in their geographic region. Each candidatefor member-nomination was given a basic webpage on the ICANNsite (again, including links to homepages and candidate sites).

In order to encourage At Large membersto examine the candidate pages, ICANN has sent a weekly emailreminder to every activated member (4 emails total); in addition,ICANN has sent a weekly email to all unactivated membership applicants,encouraging them to activate their memberships to participatein this year's process. The objective of the candidate-webpages-plus-weekly-email-reminderscommunication strategy is to give members regular reminders totake part in the process, while (1) facilitating communicationon equal terms for all candidates; (2) preventing the disclosureof members' personal information (such as email addresses) tocandidates or others; (3) avoiding a flood of unsolicited emailfrom many dozens of candidates; and (4) minimizing any communicationsadvantages that might be enjoyed by candidates with access togreater financial resources.

To be member-nominated, a candidate mustreceive the online endorsements of 2% of the activated membersin his/her region (or 20 members, whichever is greater), fromat least 2 different countries. Together with the nominees ofthe Nominating Committee, the member-nominees will appear onthe October ballot, up to a maximum of 7 total nominees per region.The final ballot (including qualifying member-nominees) willbe posted on September 9. Barring any last-minute surges in activations,it now appears that at least one candidate will qualify for member-nominationin each region.

• Brief History of the Membership ApplicationProcess

The membership application phase launchedon February 25, 2000, with a goal of 5,000-10,000 members. Bythe time of the July 31 deadline for applications, over158,000 had been received. Applicants were required to givetheir personal name, along with a valid email address and validphysical address. For verification purposes, each applicant wassent a member number and password via email, and a PIN numbervia postal mail. To activate a membership, the applicant mustenter each of those data elements. ICANN is continuing to conducta careful review of the membership database.

To date, over 75,000 members have activatedworldwide, representing a remarkable accomplishment for a programwhose original goal was at least 5,000 members.

• Links:
  • ICANNAt Large homepage
  • Member-nominationinfo
  • Nominating Committee nominees
  • NominatingCommittee
  • Membershipstatistics
  • FAQ