November 18, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
The John and Mary R. Markle Foundation, in New York, will spend more than $1-million on its new Internet Governance Project, which is designed to insure that the public’s interests are represented on non-governmental bodies that are being established to regulate the Internet.
The foundation has awarded a $200,000 grant to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN is a non-profit organization that was created to manage the Internet domain name system and oversee the registration of Internet addresses, responsibilities formerly managed by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
After a year of preliminary activities, ICANN is now in the process of selecting its first elected board of directors. Nine of the 19 directors have already been elected by three supporting organizations that represent technical and commercial interests. Internet users will elect nine additional at-large board members. The 19th board member is the president of ICANN.
ICANN will use the Markle grant to develop a voting process and raise awareness of the election among Internet users around the world. The Markle Foundation will also finance the work of a number of other charities that will help ICANN design the voting process, promote the election to the public, and monitor the election.
Common Cause, in Washington, will gather and lead a group of experts in governance and accountability to advise ICANN on the voting process. The Carter Center, in Atlanta, will monitor the elections.
This summer, the Markle Foundation announced that over the next three to five years it would commit $100-million of its $180-million in assets to projects related to the Internet and information technology (The Chronicle, July 29).
