Obama Web Exec Watch: ICANN Board Member Joins FCC Transition Team


In case there is any doubt about Obama’s committment to forward thinking web technologies and tapping some of the minds behind it, we will continue to document members of the web community who are entering the Obama administration or transition team.

Last week, I mentioned that Obama had named Google.org’s Sonal Shah and Launchbox Digital cofounder Julius Chenakowski to his transition team. Within two days, Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined Obama’s Economic Advisory Board.

Today, the count goes to 4 with the announcement that Susan Crawford, a former board member of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, has joined the FCC transition committee. ICANN is responsible for the allocation of IP addresses on the internet and has oversight over domain registrars.

Crawford is also a University of Michigan Law Professor with a focus on internet law.

This will be a critically important nomination, if the assignment carries over from the transition team to the administration, because Net Neutrality is coming back with a vengeance.