ICANN Votes to Reorganize Board

The group that oversees the Internet’s name system voted to exclude ordinary Web surfers from its board in a move critics say allows mainstream interests to tighten their grip on the online world.

ICANN, or the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, abolished online election of individual Internet users to the group’s executive board. Instead, the 19-member board of directors will be drawn from representatives of technical, business, government and nonprofit organizations. It will have ultimate say over policy matters that govern the domain name system for the Internet.