[AfrICANN-discuss] ICANN 31st International Public Meeting in New Delhi Next Week

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

ICANN 31st International Public Meeting in New Delhi Next Week
India, Asia represent future of the changing face of the Internet

7 February 2008

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers will open its 31st International Public Meeting on 11 February
2008 in New Delhi, India, a country and a region certain to be a the
forefront of the waves of changes coming to the Internet.

"India and Asia are at the heart of the Internet's future — a future
that ICANN is working on as we speak," said Peter Dengate Thrush,
ICANN's Board Chairman. "Internet penetration in India is at just over
five percent and growing fast — considering that one per cent is 11
million people coming online. ICANN's work on Internationalized Domain
Names and new top-level domains has the potential to reach out to rest
of India and begin remaking the Internet as people connect in their
own languages and scripts."

Some highlights of the 31 st ICANN Meeting include:

A Public Discussion of the Midterm Review of ICANN's Joint Project
Agreement with the U.S. Government and ICANN's goal of continued
transition of its role to the private sector;
A Workshop on Progress on the Fast-Track Process to find a way to
represent territory identifications in local languages as country-code
top-level domains as quickly as possible in the areas of highest need;
A workshop on ICANN's planning for what happens if a Registrar were to
cease operating;
A workshop on the pioneering work being done on IDNs in Indian
Languages and Scripts;
The signing of the fifth and final Regional At-Large Organization
memorandum of understanding — this one for the Asia-Pacific Region —
creating the formal structure for ICANN to obtain input into its
policy processes from Internet users;
An open and public ICANN Board Meeting.
"It's fitting and exciting for ICANN to hold this meeting in India.
This nation is the fastest growing IT hub in the world and at the
foundation is the single, globally interoperable Internet coordinated
by ICANN," added Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN's President and CEO. "ICANN and
the Internet Community will be discussing the issues that will help
the Internet expand to the next billion users — new top level domains
and the ability to use scripts like Devanagari and Tamil after the dot
in a domain name."

These international public meetings are the ICANN model in action —
bottom-up, consensus-driven discussions that help ensure the domain
name system is coordinated rather than controlled. The New Delhi
meeting is the first of the three public ICANN meetings in 2008. These
meetings are crucial because ICANN's polices are created through a
bottom-up, transparent process involving Internet Community.

The complete schedule for ICANN's 31st meeting, as well as links to
webcast sessions and our public participation website, can be found
at: http://delhi.icann.org/

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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
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