Internet Board

When the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority submitted its plan for Internet self-governance to the Commerce Department last week, it named the nine interim board members who will do the heavy lifting of turning the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers into a working organization.

Four Americans will serve on the interim board: Esther Dyson, Internet guru and chairwoman of EDventure Holdings; George Conrades, former chief executive of Internet pioneer BBN Corp.; Frank Fitzsimmons, a senior vice president at Dun & Bradstreet and Internet Society board member; and Linda Wilson, president of Radcliffe College.

Three of the other board members are European: Geraldine Capdeboscq, executive vice president for strategy, technology and partnerships for the French computer firm Bull; Hans Kraaijenbrink, chairman of the Assn. of European Public Telecommunications Network Operators; and Eugenio Triana, former secretary general of industrial promotion and technology in the Spanish Ministry of Industry and Energy. The two remaining members are Gregory Crew, chairman of the Australian Communications Industry Forum, and Jun Marai, president of the Japan Network Information Centre.

“I think that’s an impressive board,” said Marty Burack, executive director of the Internet Society, the Reston, Va.-based organization that represents Internet users around the globe. “You’re going to get objections because some people think some individual users and some ‘fringies’ should be on the board. But I feel it is important to have a prestigious board . . . that can get this organization off the ground.”