[AfrICANN-discuss] Fellowships for 30th ICANN Meeting

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

Fellowships to Ensure Global Voices Heard at ICANN

Program builds on the successful pilot program run at San Juan meeting

2 August 2007

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: More voices from across the globe will be
heard at ICANN's 30th International Public Meeting in Los Angeles
later this year thanks to the global fellowships program being
launched today.

"ICANN has a global mandate and it's important that we do what we can
to support participation from every corner of the world. This program
makes sure we have involvement from individuals from developing and
least developed nations who otherwise may be unable to attend," said
Theresa Swinehart, ICANN's Vice President, Global and Strategic
Partnerships. "The pilot of the fellowship program at our San Juan
meeting was a success and has helped us refine the program for the
upcoming ICANN meeting in Los Angeles."

The 33 fellows from 24 countries who played an active role at the San
Juan meeting were chosen from 125 applications received - and 65 per
cent of the fellows and 68 per cent of applicants had never attended
an ICANN meeting.

Priority will be given to applicants who are current residents of
developing and least developed nations who are interested in
participating in ICANN and its supporting organizations, such as the
Governmental Advisory Committee, the Country Code Names Supporting
Organization, and the Generic Names Supporting Organization. The
fellowship will assist in covering airfare, hotel and a stipend.
Recipients will be expected to actively participate in and contribute
to ICANN processes. As always, registration for ICANN's meetings is
free for anyone wanting to attend. The Los Angeles meeting will be
held from 29 October to 2 November 2007.

"ICANN is working on major efforts with internationalized domain names
and new top-level domains - efforts that represent some of the biggest
changes to the Internet since it was invented," Swinehart added.
"ICANN wants as much input and global engagement as possible on issues
like IDNs and top-level domains - and the fellowship program has a key
role in helping us accomplish that goal."

Applications will be accepted from now until 1200 PDT (UTC -7) on
Friday 24 August 2007. More information, as well as a link to the
application for a fellowship, is available online at:
http://www.icann.org/fellowships/

About ICANN:

ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's
system of unique identifiers like domain names (like .org, .museum and
country codes like .uk) and the addresses used in a variety of
Internet protocols that help computers reach each other over the
Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the
Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to
develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and
stability. ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit
non-profit company. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.

Media Contacts:

Jason Keenan
Media Adviser, ICANN (USA)
Ph: +1 310 382 4004
E: jason.keenan at icann.org

International: Andrew Robertson
Edelman (London)
Ph: +44 7921 588 770
E: andrew.robertson at edelman.com

-- 
Anne-Rachel Inne