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The plans to make ICANN, which presides over the Internet's traffic system, more accountable to governments have not received the support of ICANN's Evolution and Reform Committee (ERC), which had been looking into the issue. The committee is made up of just four of the body's 19 directors, but it is thought that its views are generally that of the board as its members were consulted by the ERC.
Although the ERC said it agreed that ICANN "must evolve into a more effective entity," it failed to endorse ideas proposed by the organisation's president, Stuart Lynn, who had called for greater governmental input and less corporate control of ICANN.
In February of this year, Lynn said that ICANN, operating as a purely private organisation, was not working. As a result, he wanted to re-establish ICANN as a body partly controlled by governments from around the world with additional participation coming from technical bodies and other Internet-related organisations. Lynn also recommended that the group abandon on-line elections for the selection of five directors and instead rely on a "nominating committee" to pick the board members.
The restructuring committee rejected Lynn's proposal to give national governments control of one-third of the board. The ICANN Committee, did however agree that more active government participation in the organisation was necessary, though it dismissed the idea of totally watering down ICANN's commercial base and said that "preserving ICANN's essential character as a private-sector institution" was desirable.
The ERC said that the creation of increased interactions between its own Government Advisory Committee and other elements of ICANN would instead be more effective.
The committee adopted some of Lynn's proposed measures however. His suggestion of including a representative for national domains such as .ie and .fr on the board was approved, as was the proposal to include around seven representatives of established technical and commercial interests. These seats would be chosen by a nominating committee to represent the Internet community as a whole, but the report declined to say who would sit on that committee.
In February, Lynn had said that funding was a crucial issue for the organisation. He proposed that governments would increase their funding of ICANN in return for a greater say in its running. He also wanted new fees introduced for some ICANN services. Again, the ERC agreed in principle for reform of funding, but said it had not reached a decision on how to combine various proposals in order to bring about effective levels of funding.
Lynn announced at the end of May that he would step down as ICANN's president and chief executive at the end of 2003 citing personal reasons for his decision.
The ERC's proposals will be voted upon by the board at ICANN's next meeting in Bucharest on 24 June to 28 June.
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