overview studies advocacy participation UDRP

studies This page is under construction. It looks at studies of ICANN, its operation and implications. There's unfortunately no comprehensive study of ICANN's history and operation. Coordinating the Internet (Cambridge, MIT Press 97) edited by Brian Kahin & James Keller offers an introduction to policy and technical questions. There's a considerably less sympathetic view in The Domain Name Handbook: High Stakes & Strategies In Cyberspace (Gilroy, RD Books 98) by Ellen & Peter Rony. It has a companion site.  We've highlighted other writings in our Network, Governance and Intellectual Property guides.      criticisms Unofficial analysis of its activities is provided by a number of bodies, including ICANNWatch. ICANN has recently released proposals for changes to the domain name system. ICANN was the subject of an interesting study - The ICANN At-Large Election - by US public interest groups the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) and Common Cause. In 2000 ICANN sought membership from the community - principals of Caslon Analytics are members - as the basis for elections to its board.   That study was followed by a stinging attack from US online regulatory guru (or gadfly) Michael Froomkin.  Most analysis, understandably, has come from ICANN's opponents rather than its supporters. Two examples are Jonathan Weinberg's paper  An Analysis of the DNSO's Names Council and David Post's short paper on Juries & the UDRP. We've highlighted other writing by Post in our Governance guide. Milton Mueller's detailed although problematical  Rough Justice report on the UDRP, discussed later in this profile, has been more influential.      a new body As we note in our governance guide, some critics and supporters of ICANN have suggested that it would be best to establish a new body.  Some suggest an international agency that would establish new rules or even lay the foundations for a far-reaching Lex Informatica or Lex Cyberspace, a uniform legal regime covering all online activity. Others seek a UN-style body (which would somehow escape the problems blighting the UN) to provide global government of consumer, intellectual property, access and other questions. Examples are Ralph Nader's January 2001 call for a World Consumer Protection Organization (WCPO), on the model of the World Intellectual Property Organization but "more democratically run" and the suggestion by the American Bar Association, in its major cyberspace law project report, for a global commission to set international rules regarding consumer protection, privacy, taxation, banking, gambling and other online activities.     next page  (advocacy)