<h2 style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0px;">ICANN Opens 31st International
Public Meeting in New Delhi</h2>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: small;">Topics include Internet
internationalization, increasing domain names choices</p>
<p style="margin: 15px 0px 0px;">11 February 2008</p>
<p><strong></strong><strong>NEW DELHI</strong><strong> , INDIA:</strong>
Internet issues from around the world are front and center in India as the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers opened its 31st
International Public Meeting today in New Delhi. </p>
<p>"This year is an important one for the future of ICANN. The U.S. government
is in the middle of its Midterm Review of its Joint Project Agreement with
ICANN, and we're arguing it's time to take the final step to originally
envisioned private sector model for ICANN," said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN's
Board Chairman. "In fact the public comment period closes on the final day of
this meeting – so we expect plenty of discussion about this in New Delhi, and we
will be encouraging everyone who believes in the ICANN model of coordination not
control to make their thoughts known." </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>"There wlll be key discussions at the New Delhi meting about our ongoing work
to develop a new application and approval model for new generic top-level
domains or gTLDs, and our work on Internationalized Domain Names or IDNs, which
will mean the languages and scripts of most of the world could be used to write
domain names," said Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN's President and CEO. "Because the
ICANN model is based on bottom-up, consensus-driven policy making, these global
meetings are important ways of making sure ICANN is on track and meeting the
needs of the wider Internet community." </p>
<p>Discussions around IDNs will include two workshops, one 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, and another on the pioneering work India is doing on IDNs in Indian
Languages and Scripts. </p>
<p>Other meeting highlights include: </p>
<ul><li>A workshop on ICANN's planning for what happens if a Registrar were to cease
operating
</li><li>IT Success Story of India session with some of the leading figures from the
Indian IT sector.An open and public ICANN Board Meeting. </li></ul>
<p>The complete schedule for ICANN's 31st meeting, as well as links to webcast
sessions and our public participation website, can be found at: <a title="blocked::http://delhi.icann.org/" href="http://delhi.icann.org/">http://delhi.icann.org/</a> </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 title="blocked::http://www.icann.org/" href="http://www.icann.org/">www.icann.org</a>. </p>
<p><strong>Media Contacts:</strong></p>
<p>Jason Keenan<br>Media Adviser, ICANN<br>Ph: +1 310 382 4004<br>E:
<a href="mailto:jason.keenan@icann.org">jason.keenan@icann.org</a> </p>
<p>International: Andrew Robertson<br>Edelman (London)<br>Ph: +44 7921 588
770<br>E: <a href="mailto:andrew.robertson@edelman.com">andrew.robertson@edelman.com</a></p>I am also available if you need any other information.<br>AR<br>