Still Time to Join ICANN

I have finally succeeded in signing up for a public, at-large membership at ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, after multiple attempts to get through to the organization’s overloaded membership server. You should sign up, too.

ICANN is the body responsible for governing the domain-name system on the Internet. Its decisions, which go to the core of the Net’s inner workings, are important to us all.

The public is allowed to participate in a small way, through the election of at-large board members. The value of being an at-large public member is debatable, I concede, given the ICANN board’s tendency to make autocratic decisions, and the organization’s strong tilt toward the powerful interests that are dominating the system today, namely big companies, governments and trademark holders, is another less-than-positive sign.

But we make a mistake if we throw up our hands and decide it’s not worth the trouble even to try. That’s why I implore you to sign up, if you haven’t already, on the ICANN membership site.

Registration ends on Monday. The servers have been grossly overloaded, but several people have written me to say they were able to sign up after several attempts.

Please register, if you care about the future of the Internet.

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