Issues
Internet Governance
Consistent with MAP's purpose of protecting the public's right to speak and hear information from a diversity of sources as promised by the First Amendment, MAP has actively participated in the policy debate surrounding Internet governance. MAP has played its traditional roles as an advocate and as a coalition builder and educator within the public interest community.
- MAP initially worked with the Benton Foundation, with funding from the C.S. Mott Foundation, The Carnegie Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, on developing a proposal to use the .us ccTLD to promote civic discourse, enhance opportunities for non-commercial speech at a local and national level, and raise funds to address the digital divide. In the course of this year-long effort, MAP involved more than 30 civic, charitable, and public advocacy organizations. MAP also explained the importance of public involvement in DNS policy to the staff of numerous Senators and Representatives.
- When the Commerce Department rejected the Benton/MAP proposal, MAP embarked on a two-prong strategy to ensure continuing public involvement in formulating policy for .us. First, MAP worked closely with an initiative sponsored by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) to formulate a "public interest plug-in" acceptable to the potential managers of .us. Second, MAP intensified its public advocacy at Commerce, on the Hill, and to the public. MAP's efforts in this prong resulted in numerous articles in the popular press and trade press raising public awareness of the issues and pressuring Commerce to provide for a larger public role. It also resulted in letters from key Congressmen urging the Commerce Department to consider the public interest in .us more thoroughly, and greater engagement by several public interest groups not previously involved in the process.
- MAP expects that the political pressures resulting from MAP's advocacy will further the efforts spearheaded by CDT. In addition, the continued engagement of Members of Congress will provide further oversight of Commerce's .us and DNS policies generally, resulting, we expect, in greater accountability to the public and further opportunities for public participation.
- In the broader Internet governance debate, MAP has participated in the effort to secure a stronger role for the public at ICANN. MAP Associate Director Harold Feld attended the ICANN Board meeting in Cairo in March 2000, where the question of direct public election of ICANN Board Members was debated and resolved. While MAP has not had the opportunity to send a representative to subsequent ICANN Board meetings, MAP has participated in the NAIS study and in the pre-ICANN Board meeting public interest conferences hosted by ACM and CDT. MAP anticipates it will participate in the reorganization of the .ORG domain.
- MAP files request for Department of Commerce to "re-bid" its current agreements with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), under which ICANN manages the Internet domain name addressing system. The current agreements expire at the end of September 2002 and this letter urges the DoC to open the process to accept any qualified bidder, not merely ICANN, and after open comment, as DoC did in 1998. (5/29/02)
Internet Governance in the News
Questions about who should control the Internet's complex global addressing system are mounting as the current governing body weighs whether to do away with plans for international elections to is board.
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