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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently launched organizing of the individual Internet user community (At-Large) for increasing global participation and representation in ICANN. Under a framework approved by ICANN's Board of Directors, local and regional groups may now form in Latin America to involve their members in critical issues that effect their use of the Internet's domain name system.

Direct user involvement will help ensure that ICANN takes actions that reflect individual Internet users' needs in Latin America on matters such as implementing internationalized domain names, introducing new domain names, and what safeguards are needed for personal information available in the WHOIS database (to name a few issues ICANN is working on).

Three individuals in Latin America who have been active in the At-Large community and will be involved in organizing At-Large groups in Latin America are listed below. They are available to discuss why Latin American Internet user groups will become involved in ICANN, how ICANN effects Latin American users, and how users benefit from ICANN involvement:

- Gabriel Piqeiro, in Argentina, a leader of "LatinoamerICANN" (he can be reached at );

- Erick Iriarte Ahon, in Peru, a computer law specialist and advisor on ICANN (he can be reached at ); and

- Edmundo M Valenti, in Argentina, a leader of the Internet Society in Argentina (he can be reached at or )

ICANN's Interim At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) will now begin extensive outreach and education efforts to help interested groups and individuals in all regions of the world form "At-Large Structures." "At-Large Structures" will be groups throughout the world (either existing organizations or newly formed for this purpose) focusing on participation by individual Internet users at the local or issue level. Interested groups will complete and submit to the ALAC a short application form (is available at http://alac.icann.org/) Groups that meet the minimum requirements, such as supporting individual Internet users' informed participation in ICANN, will be designated as "At-Large Structures."

When there are sufficient At-Large Structures in a geographic region (Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America), these groups can form a Regional At-Large Organization (RALO). The five RALOs will act as the main forum and coordination point in each region for public input to ICANN, and will select 10 members of the ALAC. The ALAC provides advice to ICANN's Board and other constituencies on the activities of ICANN that relate to the interests of individual Internet users.

By Denise Michel

Related topics: DNS, Domain Names, ICANN, Multilinguism, Whois