The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) yesterday signaled its potential shift in the publication of a working paper outlining proposed reforms.

At a meeting in Ghana earlier in March, ICANN voted to begin its own restructuring, in the process abandoning plans to establish a global mechanism that could have allowed ordinary Internet users to directly elect some of ICANN's leaders.

Instead, the ICANN board of directors ordered an internal committee to develop a plan to reform the organization, drawing on a proposal submitted by ICANN President Stuart Lynn.

In its first official word on the subject, the reform committee this week endorsed many of Lynn's proposals for revamping the organization, but took a more ambivalent stance toward Lynn's proposal that world governments choose some of ICANN's leaders.

Citing perceived difficulties associated with bringing governments on board, the reform committee wrote, "We explore alternatives to direct government involvement in board selection because of the practical difficulties that have been expressed in implementing that idea in the near future."

The committee did not, however, decry government involvement, which some ICANN critics say would be an inadequate substitute for direct, public ICANN board elections.

The committee said that Lynn's proposal regarding government involvement had "significant merit."

"In particular, greater government involvement is one way to fill the vital need to reflect the public interest on ICANN's board through mechanisms that are practical, valid, affordable and not readily subject to capture."

The ICANN board, which has final say over all of the body's decisions, currently includes five members (out of 19) who were elected by the Internet public in a pilot election two years ago.

Lynn and other ICANN insiders have questioned the reliability of large-scale online elections, saying that they are vulnerable to "capture" by special interest groups. Lynn said that officials elected by world governments would do a more comprehensive job of representing public interests online.

Public interest groups and ICANN detractors have responded that public elections are the only way to keep ICANN's internal bureaucracy in touch with the needs of ordinary Internet users.

Karl Auerbach, a longtime ICANN critic who serves as one of the body's five elected board members, accused the reform committee - which is chaired by ICANN board member Alejandro Pisanty - of simply going along with Lynn's vision of a reformed ICANN.

Despite some tweaks made by the reform committee to Lynn's proposal, Auerbach called the committee's efforts "a rubber stamp of gargantuan proportions."

"They don't even raise the issue of … holding public elections," Auerbach said.

Lynn disputed Auerbach's assessment.

"I think Karl is completely off base when he makes that kind of a comment," Lynn said, citing the changes to his proposal that the reform committee recommended.

While, the working paper appears to endorse Lynn's proposal that an internally selected ICANN nominating committee should choose many of ICANN's board members, the committee suggests significant changes to Lynn's proposed structure.

Responding to criticisms about the "closed nature" of the nominating committee approach, the working paper suggests bringing a more diverse group of Internet stakeholders into the nominating committee structure.

Lynn said that the committee really didn't endorse or criticize any proposals, but rather drew on public input to hone a more refined approach to reform.

Pisanty was not immediately available for comment on this story.

The reform committee's working paper is at http://www.icann.org/committees/evol-reform/working-paper-structure-09may02.htm

Lynn's original proposal is at http://www.icann.org/general/lynn-reform-proposal-24feb02.htm .

Reported by Washtech.com, http://www.washtech.com .

16:33 CST