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News >> Technology >>
India needs to step up in Internet governance
By agencies
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Monday, 07 August 2006, 19:30 IST
BANGALORE: The need for India to induct global Internet governance has brimmed up as noted expert appealed to Indian professionals to be more active in this crucial area.
Bangalore-based Madanmohan Rao, consultant, author and editor of The Asia Pacific Internet Handbook series, mentioned that though India seems to be booming in the technology sector, one of the current priorities is to get Indian experts to become more actively involved in Internet governance issues.
Recently appointed to the Outreach Sub-Committee, part of the Nominating Committee (NomComm) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), he says NomComm has just issued a Formal Call for Statements of Interest. We would like experts from India to check out the ICANN website for details and file their applications."
While hundreds of millions use the Net, there is little comprehension of how it works, or who governs it. As against the past when the U.S. Department of Commerce held the reigns to the Internet, attracting criticism from those who felt that its control should reflect its international nature, functions were then shifted over to ICANN, a new U.S. non-profit corporation.
ICANN is an internationally organized corporation that is responsible for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) top-level domain name system management, and root server system management functions.
NomCom is responsible for the selection of all ICANN Directors except the President and those selected by ICANN's Supporting Organizations. The NomCom is charged with populating a portion of the ICANN Board as noted above, as well as the Council of the GNSO, the Interim ALAC, and the Council of the ccNSO.
Calling itself a "private-public partnership", ICANN follows the vision and mission of staying dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet, to promoting competition, to achieving broad representation of global Internet communities, and to developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes.
With three openings on the ICANN board of directors, one for the Council of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), one for the Council of the Country-Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and two members of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), ICANN's Nominating Committee has invited nominations from the Internet community.
"Those selected will gain the satisfaction of making a valuable public service contribution towards the continued function and evolution of an essential global resource," promises ICANN.