German enthusiasm for the net could see it lead Europe on the board of directors of the net management body Icann (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

A media campaign spearheaded by weekly news magazine Der Spiegel has spurred German citizens to register to vote in this autumn's online elections for five Icann board members, one of which will represent Europe.

Of the 17,000-odd registrations submitted worldwide, 24 per cent have come from Germany - compared with just four per cent from the UK, and two per cent from France. The US accounts for 41 per cent.

Der Spiegel has suggested that Icann will become the "UN of the Information Age".

Icann is playing down the poll's significance. "Der Spiegel may have made Icann out to be bigger than it is. It's a technical body, and anything else is inflated language," said an Icann spokeswoman.

Critics of the organisation say that recent actions - such as the imposition of a dollar fee on all domain name registrants, and the adoption of the World Intellectual Property Organisations report for trademark-related domain name disputes - prove that the organisation is already addressing non-technical issues.

Willy Black, managing director of Nominet, the registrar for the .uk internet domain, said German representation of Europe on the Icann board should not worry the UK. "We have very good relations with the De NIC [German network information centre], with no great divergence of views," he said.

First published in Computing