Net body changes leadership rules

1 November, 2002

The group that co-ordinates the internet has approved controversial changes to the way it chooses its leadership. At a meeting in Shanghai, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, (Icann), voted to abandon online elections for half of its directors. 

The changes are designed to improve the efficiency of Icann, which is responsible for making key decisions that affect everything from how websites are named to how e-mail is sent. 

But critics say the decision will make the body less accountable to the world's 550 million internet users. 

The directors of Icann voted 15-3 to adopt a wide-ranging reform plan designed to end wrangling over how the group should function and who it should represent. 

"It is very much becoming a body that follows the interests of big business", Karl Auerbach, elected Icann director. 

"This will make Icann a much more efficient and effective organisation that will get things done better and faster and be more plugged-in to the community than we are now," said the group's president, Stuart Lynn. 

More details at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2385363.stm

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