Some reforms may be made at the the upcoming Paris meeting of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) on June 23 – 28 which could greatly improve ICANN’s representative structure. In a nutshell, representation of noncommercial users (public interest groups, NGOs, and individuals of a public interest bent) will be increased from its current 14%, possibly to 25% or one-third. This will also involve a change in the nature of noncommercial interest representation in ICANN.

ICANN’s Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) is inviting all civil society organizations with an interest in the Internet and its global governance to be aware of this and take advantage of it.

The Internet Society of New York is a member of the NCUC and has also applied to become an At-Large Structure (ALS), which participates in the appointment of members of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC).

The NCUC will use online collaboration tools to extend the meeting between the NCUC and the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) globally. You do not have to go to Paris to participate. NCUC will be using the Elluminate platform to permit remote participation in the meeting. Attendees will be able to pose questions or participate in the discussion, as well as be able to hear discussions going on in the meeting. The civil society meeting will be held Tuesday June 24, from 14:00 – 18:00 Paris time.

The first two hours will be a general policy issue discussion for noncommercial organizations, the second half (from 16:00 – 18:00) will coincide with the joint meeting between the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) and the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC). Again, the date is Jun 24, local time in New York 10:00-14:00

To enable your participation, first install the Elluminate java-based Client. You can do this at any time, the sooner the better. Once that is complete, on the date and time of the meeting go to the event listing on the Internet Governance Project website and click “Join Meeting Online”.