In October the Internet will host its first election, with registered voters deciding who will regulate this medium Lauren Shantall Only 200 South Africans will be voting for one of two African candidates for Icann, the Internet “traffic authority” – despite there being nearly two million local users. The Icann election, from October 1 to 10, will be the world’s first global and all- electronic election. It will take place entirely online, utilising the only neutral zone available to the worldwide community – cyberspace. The voters, 158 000 netizens from across the planet, will be casting virtual ballots to determine how they would like the Internet to be managed. The election is organised by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann). Icann is a non-profit, private- sector body that coordinates policies relating to the assignment of Internet domain names, such as .com, .net and .co.za, and related technologies. It coordinates the domain name system (DNS). Domain names and Internet protocols must be globally unique in order for the Internet to function. The DNS directs all Internet traffic.
Before Icann was formed in September 1998, most Internet DNS and Internet protocol address coordinations were performed on behalf of the United States government by groups like the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.
With the rapid growth of the Internet and its increasing globalisation and commercialisation, the need for a non- governmental management structure, such as Icann, arose. Icann has been accused of making policy decisions that affect the Internet community without consulting that community, but the upcoming election is open to all who registered online as At Large Members of Icann between February 25 and July 31 2000. According to Icann, the “At Large Membership programme is intended as a means for Internet users from all over the globe to have a voice in Icann’s technical policymaking structure for the Internet’s domain name and numbering systems”.
In October the At Large constituency will vote in five new directors to Icann’s board, one from each of five geographic regions. In the Asia/Australia/Pacific region 93 782 Internet users registered, in Europe 35 942, in the Latin America/ Caribbean region 6 486, and in North America 21 596 voters registered.
Only 787 Africans registered to vote. Dr Nii Quaynor, chair and CEO of Network Computer Systems in Ghana, and South African Internet pioneer Alan Levin ([email protected]) are the only African candidates nominated as potential directors. Levin co-founded Intekom and currently directs Internet service provider Sunesi.net. He became involved with Icann after attending the African Network Operators Group conference in Cape Town in May 2000. At that stage “the entire African continent had less than 80 registered At Large members of Icann. In South Africa there were less than 20 members,” says Levin. “I went on a personal drive to get people to join. I made it my business to get people informed and get them to register. I went to the Internet Organisations of South Africa and announced it at the committee meeting of the Internet Service Providers’ Association.” After this campaign Levin was nominated by a colleague and accepted by Icann as a candidate. The number of registered South Africans has subsequently risen to 200, but Levin is disappointed. He points out that while South Africa is responsible for 85% of Internet usage on the continent, 75% of voters come from elsewhere. Levin sees the South African reluctance to participate as a legacy of apartheid. Local businesses and users are apathetic – to their detriment, he believes.
Involvement in Icann is necessary, Levin explains, as many African domains are defunct. Until recently there was no domain in Sudan. “The Gambian domain is dysfunctional and you can’t register domain names there. Nigeria has problems. The vast majority has huge difficulties in registering new domains because there are no systems in place.”
Which makes it problematic for the South African information technology industry to expand into Africa and vice versa. Between now and October, Levin plans to address this problem. The “South African industry is isolated from the rest of Africa. I believe that South Africa has a lot of opportunity for collaboration, supply, upliftment and social responsibility, but most of all has an obligation to the citizens of South Africa to grow its economy and the African economy.”
Levin aims to gain the support of the voting constituency by “obtaining commitments from South African businesses to roll out services and products into the rest of Africa”. His plans to turn South Africa into an incubator for African companies to develop new economy products and services are encouraging. Speaking as the chair of the South African Value Added Network Services Association Mike van den Bergh feels that the elected Icann representative for Africa should “ensure that Icann takes the needs and wishes of the emerging economies of Africa into account”. Icann should not be “dominated by First World [and specifically US] interests”. It remains to be seen exactly how Levin’s commitment to economic growth and Icann’s unprecedented election will affect the Internet in Africa. For now, says Levin, the groundbreaking process acknowledges “that the Internet operates without governments but not without governance”. In this instance, governance by the global people for the people stretches much more widely the notion that the World Wide Web transcends national boundaries.