MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: Global participation and ideas will be on the rise at the 41st Public Meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers thanks to ICANN's on-going Fellowship Program.
Now in its fourth year of successful capacity building and participation in the ICANN community, the Fellowship Program's mission is to identify members of the Internet community who might not be able to participate in ICANN processes and constituent organizations without some means of support. Fellowship Program outreach focuses on the less developed regions of the world, in order to help create a broad base of knowledgeable constituents who will become the new voices of experience in their regions.
For this 13th round of the Fellowship Program, we are pleased to announce that 23 fellows have been selected from 19 countries, chosen from the 80 applications received. Nine of the fellows are alumni from at least one of the past 12 programmes; 12 are first-time attendees to any ICANN meeting; and 2 individuals have attended past meetings, but are first time fellows. There is representation from all sectors including civil, government, academia, and business or user groups. Also included in these sectors are representatives of country code supporting groups. You will find this current list of participants at http://www.icann.org/en/fellowships/
The 42nd ICANN Public Meeting will be held in Dakar, Senegal (Africa region) from 23-28 October 2011. The online Fellowship application process for that meeting opens on 27 May 2011; look to the ICANN homepage for that announcement.
Background:
For each meeting, applications for Fellowship support are assessed by an independent selection committee, and priority is given to applicants who: meet minimum program requirements; are current residents of developing and least developed nations; and who demonstrate an interest in participating in ICANN's bottom-up, multi-stakeholder policy development model. An effort is made to include more participants from the region where the current meeting is being held. All confirmed fellowship participants must comply with the terms and conditions of the Fellowship program, as outlined at http://www.icann.org/en/fellowships/terms-and-conditions.htm. As stated within these terms and conditions, ICANN is a California non-profit public benefit corporation incorporated in the United States and must therefore comply with all the laws and regulations of California and the United States. Fellows are responsible for obtaining all travel visas once accepted into the program. ICANN will only purchase tickets for Fellows after all necessary documentation has been obtained and Fellows demonstrate that they have obtained all necessary travel visas.
Once all of the requirements for travel are met, the Fellowship program arranges airfare and hotel, as well as provides a stipend, following successful completion of the Fellowship program, to assist with some meeting costs incurred. Recipients will be expected to actively participate in and contribute to ICANN processes during and after the meeting. As always, registration for ICANN's meetings is free for anyone wanting to attend. The meeting in Singapore will be held from 19-24 June 2011.
About ICANN:
To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet.
ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet's unique identifiers.
ICANN doesn't control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn't deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet's naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.
Media Contacts:
Brad White
Director of Global Media Affairs
Washington, DC USA
Tel: +1 202 570 7118
Email: brad.white@icann.org
Andrew Robertson
Edelman Public Relations
London, U.K.
Tel: +44 (7811) 341 945
Email: Andrew.Robertson@edelman.com