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RIO DE JANEIRO : Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, took part in today's opening session of the 2007 Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:

"The Internet Governance Forum brings together a diverse group of individuals in the aim of sharing knowledge and experience over and about this one global interoperable Internet," Dr Twomey said.

Dr Twomey said the Internet community should be proud of its global accomplishments of over one billion individuals online, trillions of dollars of business annually over a network of millions of computers communicating with one another across the globe, and the ability for individuals to communicate and interact with others unprecedented in human history.

"But with this extraordinary change also comes challenges. And that is what this Forum is about — bringing together people to talk, review, discuss and hopefully solve some of the issues that are before us," Dr Twomey added. "The agenda of this meeting captures them. Most important of course is access. Our discussions at the IGF will mean nothing to someone not able to get onto the network in the first place.

"ICANN like other Internet organizations is very committed to its multistakeholder and open way of doing business where any one from governments, the technical community, business and civil society can participate. We are very pleased that the IGF is also following this model," Dr Twomey added. "ICANN has a participator community of up to 20,000 people involved in our decision making process. I would like to issue a personal invitation to all the people here today to join that community and help its development and evolution."

Dr Twomey said he also looks forward to the discussion on the other IGF agenda themes of diversity, openness, security, and for this year's IGF, critical Internet resources.

"The Internet is the medium, the issues themselves represent many areas at many layers. We look forward to the discussions over the next days and the exchange of views where further cooperation, coordination, and collaboration can contribute to the Internet's increasing use for the billions of users not yet online," Dr Twomey said.

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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 (USA)
Ph: +1 310 382 4004
E: jason.keenan@icann.org

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