<h4 style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0px;">Global Participation Gets a Boost at ICANN</h4>
<p style="margin: 0px;">Fellowship program helps get 33 participants to 29th public meeting</p>
<p style="margin: 15px 0px 0px;">26 June 2007</p>
<p> <strong>SAN JUAN</strong><strong>, Puerto Rico</strong>: There are 33 more
international voices at the 29th International Public Meeting of Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) thanks to its trial global
fellowships program. </p>
<p> "ICANN's unique role is global in nature so it's important that we
not only invite the world to participate in our organization -- we also
need to find ways to get involvement from developing nations and
regions that might not otherwise be able to participate," said Theresa
Swinehart, ICANN's Vice President, Global and Strategic Partnerships. </p>
<p>The 33 fellows were chosen from 125 applications received -- and 65
per cent of the fellows and 68 per cent of applicants have never
attended an ICANN meeting. There were also 10 fellowship participants
who were approved but decided to postpone taking part until the Los
Angeles meeting later this year. </p>
<p> "Fellowship participants have been taking an active part in various
workshops and sessions, and have also been holding their own daily
meeting -- which is open to anyone attending the ICANN meeting,"
Swinehart added. "It's been great for ICANN to have them taking part in
our process, and bringing the ideas to the table." </p>
<p> Approved fellows have their hotel rooms and economy airfare to the
meeting paid for, as well as a $300 stipend to cover incidental
expenses during the week. The program emerged from input made during
ICANN's public consultations on its Strategic and Operation planning
process. The cost of the fellowship project for the San Juan meeting is
estimated at $95,000. </p>
<p> A video of the fellowship participants at the San Juan meeting is available online at: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-avQSCl8eA">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-avQSCl8eA</a>.</p>
<p> The fellowship participants in San Juan are from Argentina, Benin,
Botswana, Brazil, Colombia, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica,
Malawi, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Montserrat, Nepal, Solomon Islands,
St. Lucia, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Tajikistan, Trinidad And
Tobago, Tunisia, Tuvalu, and Venezuela.</p>
<p><strong>About ICANN: </strong></p>
<p> 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: <a href="http://www.icann.org/">www.icann.org</a>.</p>