ICANN without restraints: the difficulties of coordinating stakeholders

People interested in coalitions and policy-making on a global scale--topics that are increasingly relevant in a world whose borders are irrelevant to carbon dioxide, flu viruses, and other critical entities--need to learn from other organizations that are dealing with these issues. This week brings particularly important news about the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has been making policy for eleven years under a number of difficult premises:

• It was created hastily and arbitrarily without roots in the communities most interested in its mandate.
• Its concept of stakeholders is boundless, potentially involving anyone who uses the Internet or gets information that has passed at some point over the Internet.
• Its reach is global, and its decisions are affected by issues of language and culture.

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