With the event described below drawing near, and six of seven North-American At Large candidates confirmed to attend, I want to make especially certain to have sufficient RealServer capacity to accommodate everyone who wishes to join via webcast. Accordingly, it's extra important that everyone planning to participate in the webcast preregister via the form linked from <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/candidateforum>. Doing so lets us know how many webcast viewers to expect, and thus how much RealServer capacity and bandwidth we must secure for a successful transmission. (I also want to note that remote participation in this event will use a newly-overhauled mechanism that I hope and expect will greatly improve the webcast experience by reducing the number of simultaneous windows and other objects to keep track of. I'm therefore especially interested in suggestions for improvements to the remote participation system itself.) More information about the event follows. Ben Edelman Berkman Center for Internet & Society Harvard Law School The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Internet Democracy Project are pleased to announce two events featuring the ICANN North American candidates, each of which take place on Monday, October 2, 2000 on the Harvard Law School campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is the nonprofit organization that was formed in 1998 to assume responsibility for the domain name system, protocol parameter assignment, and related functions. ICANN's upcoming online election, taking place from October 1-10, will give the ICANN At-Large membership a voice in the organization's decisions through its selection of five members for ICANN's Board of Directors. One Director will be chosen from each of five geographic regions: Africa, Asia/Australia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America/Caribbean, and North America. There are seven candidates competing for the North American seat. Free and open to the public, both events will be webcast live with remote participation, and feature the candidates engaging in informal dialogue as well as formal debate. * "A Dialogue with the Candidates," 4:20-6:00p.m. EDT, moderated by Jonathan Zittrain, Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard Law School. Professor Jonathan Zittrain's "Internet & Society 2000" Harvard Law School class will host a moderated discussion with the candidates, exploring the role of ICANN as an organization, the role of the ICANN directors, and the scope and meaning of ICANN's At-Large membership. The discussion will be open to the public and webcast live with remote participation. Both the online and in-person audiences will have the opportunity to pose questions for the candidates. This event is presented by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. * "ICANN North American Candidate Forum," 7:30-9:30p.m. EDT, moderated by Jean-Claude Guedon, University of Montreal. Expanding the format of the Presidential Commission debates, Jean-Claude Guedon will moderate a question-and-answer session among the seven North American ICANN candidates about the issues facing ICANN and the role of ICANN itself. Candidates will respond to questions posed by a distinguished panel including Declan McCullagh of Wired Magazine. The forum will be open to the public in-person and online via webcast with a real-time discussion forum. After the forum, candidates will have the opportunity to submit brief written follow-up responses to the forum's questions, and these responses will be posted along with video and other archive materials in the archive. This event is presented by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Internet Democracy Project. For more information about these events, including how to register to attend or view the live webcast, please visit the "A Day with the ICANN North American Candidates" website at <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/candidateforum>. Please note that these events are not sponsored by, nor affiliated with, ICANN. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School is a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and identify and engage the challenges and opportunities it presents. The Internet Democracy Project is a non-partisan organization that seeks to enhance public participation in decisions concerning the future of the Internet. We look forward to seeing you in Cambridge or to your participation via the Internet. *************************** The Berkman Center for Internet & Society <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu> The Internet Democracy Project <http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org>
