At-Large Advisory Committee

Last updated

The At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) is an advisory committee to ICANN, the organization that administers the Internet's Domain Name System and addressing system. According to ICANN Bylaw XI.4.a, "ALAC is the primary organizational home within ICANN for individual Internet users", [1] with a mandate to "consider and provide advice on the activities of ICANN, insofar as they relate to the interests of individual Internet users". [1]

Contents

Structure and mission

The ALAC is composed by fifteen members, three from each of the five geographic regions used by ICANN for geographical diversity requirements.

As a part of its mission, the ALAC reaches out for groups of individual Internet users all around the world - identified as At-Large Structures (ALSes) - and encourages them to apply for accreditation by ICANN. Once accredited, these groups can participate in the five Regional At-Large Organizations (RALOs), regional groupings that host discussions at a regional level. In turn, each RALO appoints two members of the ALAC (for a total of ten members out of fifteen). This builds an open, bottom-up mechanism to select the ALAC members. The remaining five members of the ALAC are appointed by ICANN's Nominating Committee.

The ALAC appoints one non-voting representative to the councils of the Generic Names Supporting Organization and to the Country Code Names Supporting Organization, and liaisons to ICANN working groups and task forces. It also appoints five members (one per geographic region) of ICANN's Nominating Committee. It has some statutory authority, though limited, to influence ICANN's policy making activities. However, it usually shares its opinions through non-binding advisory statements sent to the ICANN Board.

Originally the ALAC appointed a liaison to the ICANN Board; however, that position was abolished in 2010 when an additional, fully voting position on the ICANN Board was designated to be selected by the At-Large community. The first person selected by this process, joining the ICANN Board in October 2012, was former ALAC member Sébastien Bachollet. [2]

History

The ALAC was created in 2002, as one of the changes introduced in the so-called "ICANN 2.0" reform, with the purpose of providing a viable mechanism for participation by a significant number of active individual users of the Internet from around the world. Its structure was studied through the At-Large Advisory Committee Assistance Group, which made a proposal that was then approved by the ICANN Board.

The first ALAC was appointed in January 2003. Since the Regional At-Large Organizations did not exist yet, the committee was marked as "interim" and the ten regional members were appointed by the ICANN Board instead. The initial membership included the former ICANN Chairman Esther Dyson. The initial Chairman was Vittorio Bertola, and the first appointed liaison to the ICANN Board was Roberto Gaetano, and Thomas Roessler to the GNSO, who in December 2004 left his position to Bret Fausett. In March 2006, Bertola left the Chairmanship to Annette Muehlberg; in December 2006, Bertola was appointed as the new Board liaison, Alan Greenberg as GNSO liaison, and Siavash Shahshahani as CCNSO liaison.

Initially, there was widespread concern that the ALAC would fail as a result of a perception of disenfranchisement common to many Internet rights groups - especially the North American ones - that followed the demise by ICANN of the original At-Large election plan. However, the number of accredited At-Large Structures grew slowly but steadily, reaching 100 in the first months of 2007. In December 2006, the first Regional At-Large Organization, the Latin American RALO, was formally accredited by ICANN. Further RALOs for Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific were expected to be accredited in the first half of 2007.

Membership

2021 membership

EURALO Individual Members

ALAC Executive Committee (ExCom) 2020

ALAC Liaisons

Former ALAC Liaisons

Past membership

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ICANN</span> American nonprofit organization that coordinates several Internet address databases

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization head-quartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the Internet's stable and secure operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esther Dyson</span> Swiss-American journalist (born 1951)

Esther Dyson is a Swiss-born American investor, journalist, author, commentator and philanthropist. She is the executive founder of Wellville, a nonprofit project focused on improving equitable wellbeing. Dyson is also an angel investor focused on health care, open government, digital technology, biotechnology, and outer space. Dyson's career now focuses on health and she continues to invest in health and technology startups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regional Internet registry</span> Organization responsible for managing network numbering

A regional Internet registry (RIR) is an organization that manages the allocation and registration of Internet number resources within a region of the world. Internet number resources include IP addresses and autonomous system (AS) numbers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internationalized domain name</span> Type of Internet domain name

An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in non-Latin script or alphabet or in the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacritics or ligatures. These writing systems are encoded by computers in multibyte Unicode. Internationalized domain names are stored in the Domain Name System (DNS) as ASCII strings using Punycode transcription.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Twomey</span> Australian businessman and public policy executive

Paul Twomey is an Australian businessman and public policy executive. Twomey is co-founder of STASH, the secure digital storage and content sharing company. He is one of the founding figures of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international non-profit organization that coordinates many of the key functions of the global Internet. Twomey was the original chair of its Governmental Advisory Committee (1998-2003) and CEO (2003–10). A former McKinsey & Company consultant (1989–94) he was a senior executive at the Australian Trade Commission and the chief executive of the Australian National Office for the Information Economy, and CEO of Argo Pacific, a high-level Internet and cybersecurity advisory firm. He serves as the founding chairman of the Cybergreen Institute, a global non-profit organization that helps improve the health of the global cyber ecosystem.

Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of every fully qualified domain name. They are called generic for historical reasons; initially, they were contrasted with country-specific TLDs in RFC 920.

RIPE NCC is the regional Internet registry (RIR) for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. Its headquarters are in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with a branch office in Dubai, UAE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Sadowsky</span> American computer scientist

George Sadowsky is an American computer scientist who has worked in a number of entities related to promotion of the Internet worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet governance</span> System of laws, policies and practices

Internet governance consists of a system of laws, rules, policies and practices that dictate how its board members manage and oversee the affairs of any internet related-regulatory body. This article describes how the Internet was and is currently governed, some inherent controversies, and ongoing debates regarding how and why the Internet should or should not be governed in future.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations geoscheme</span> UN system for grouping the worlds 248 countries and territories into regions and subregions

The United Nations geoscheme is a system which divides 248 countries and territories in the world into six continental regions, 22 geographical subregions, and two intermediary regions. It was devised by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) based on the M49 coding classification. The creators note that "the assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Jacques Subrenat</span>

Jean-Jacques Subrenat is a French diplomat who served as ambassador, permanent representative to the Western European Union in Brussels (1995–1998), ambassador to Estonia (1998–2002) and to Finland (2002–2005). He represented France at the Board of Governors of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) in 2005. He retired from the diplomatic service in September 2005. Speaks, debates and writes on international relations, European Union affairs, Asia, defence and security, global trends and challenges, Internet governance. A member of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Currently a member of the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG). Member of the NetMundial Initiative Coordination Council.

A geographic top-level domain is any of an unofficial group of top-level domains in the Domain Name System of the Internet using the name of or invoking an association with a geographical, geopolitical, ethnic, linguistic or cultural community. The IANA does not recognize these domains as their own group within the Root Zone Database, rather classifying them as generic top-level domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophia Bekele</span> Ethiopian-American businesswoman

Sophia Bekele Eshete is an entrepreneur, corporate executive, governance and risk management specialist, policy advisor on ICT, commentator and philanthropist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavan Duggal</span> Indian lawyer

Pavan Duggal is an advocate practising in the Supreme Court of India, specializing in the field of Cyberlaw, Cybercrime Law, Cybersecurity Law, and Artificial Intelligence Law. He is a member of NomCom Committee on Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (MINC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.africa</span> Internet TLD for the African Union

.africa is the officially designated top-level domain (TLD) for the African and Pan African communities and users wherever they reside. It is a sponsored generic top-level domain (gTLD) operated by the Registry Africa. The .africa namespace is open to individuals, businesses and organizations around the world. The .africa domains are intended to showcase their brand and commitment to the African continent, establishing a home for Africa-specific products and services, expanding a brand's regional influence and acquiring online real-estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satish Babu</span> Indian Internet Governance Activist (born 1961)

Satish Babu is a Free Software activist, early Internet advocate, and development professional based out of Kerala, India. He is the founding Director of the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), an autonomous academic/research institution of the Government of Kerala, India, where he worked from March 2011 to September 2015. He was earlier the CEO of SIFFS, an NGO of small-scale artisanal fishers of south India; a co-founder and President of InApp Information Technologies; and is associated with international and national professional societies such as IEEE, Internet Society (ISOC), ICANN, and the Computer Society of India (CSI).

The Montevideo Statement on the Future of Internet Cooperation was released on 7 October 2013 by the leaders of a number of organizations involved in coordinating the Internet's global technical infrastructure. The statement was signed by the heads of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture Board, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Society, and the five regional Internet address registries. In large part, the statement is seen as a response to the ongoing NSA surveillance scandal. The leaders made four main points:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khaled Koubaa</span>

Khaled Koubaa is a Tunisian international Internet governance expert and manager of public policy in North Africa at Meta Platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tadao Takahashi</span> Brazilian computer scientist (1950–2022)

Eduardo Tadao Takahashi was a Brazilian computer scientist and researcher who was credited with contributions toward planning, deployment, and adoption of the internet in Brazil and other Latin American countries. He was a founding director of Brazil's National Research Network (RNP), an academic network that coordinated actions toward setting up the country's national internet backbone. He was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2017.

References

  1. 1 2 "BYLAWS FOR INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS | A California Nonprofit Public-Benefit Corporation - ICANN".
  2. ↑ "Community ICANN". Archived from the original on 2013-02-15. Retrieved 2012-09-07.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 "ALAC Profiles".
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 "EURALO / At-Large Individual Members".
  5. ↑ "EURALO / Regional At-Large Organizations (RALOs)".
  6. 1 2 3 "ICANN | Archives | Former Members of the At-Large Advisory Committee".
  7. ↑ "Hadia Elminiawi SOI - ALAC - Global Site".
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "ICANN | Archives | Committees | At-Large Advisory Committee".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.