Responding to criticism regarding its methods of selecting directors, the Internet's chief regulatory group said it is considering a new plan for publicly electing board members.
On Monday, a committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), said it wants to adopt a proposal allowing directors to be elected by members of the public who own Internet domains.
If adopted, the proposal would be a turnaround from past practices. In its election last year, ICANN let anyone over age 16 with a valid e-mail address register to vote for board members. That voting policy was criticized, however, for making it too easy for people with multiple e-mail addresses to vote several times.
Now, by limiting the pool to domain-name owners, ICANN officials said they would be better able to enforce a "one-person, one-vote" policy. However, officials admitted that the new set up could also open up new difficulties.
"We did not find a completely foolproof way of conducting this election," said Denise Michel, executive director of the ICANN At-Large Committee, which drew up the voting plan. "What the committee suggested was a reasonable, practical solution."
Michel's key concern was that the new proposal would prevent Internet users who don't own a website from having a vote in ICANN, a 3-year-old independent body that controls Net policy-making decisions previously performed under the auspices of the U.S. government.
To compensate for anyone's loss of a vote, ICANN plans to create a committee responsible for collecting input from the public, including people who do not own domains.
ICANN currently has 19 members on its board, five of whom were chosen in the public election last year. If the new voting proposal takes effect, Michel said the plan is to hold a new election by the end of next year.
