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ICANN Concludes 30th International Public Meeting | Peter Dengate Thrush elected chair, ICANN model stands for one global Internet

2 November 2007

LOS ANGELES : The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers continued its work to strengthen the single, global, interoperable Internet at its just concluded 30th International Public Meeting in Los Angeles.

"ICANN meetings are the ICANN model in action — bottom-up, consensus-driven discussions that help ensure the domain name system is co-ordinated rather than controlled," said Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN's President and CEO. "This 30th meeting was one of the best — we laid out our progress on internationalized domain names and new generic top-level domains, and we charted a course forward on complex and difficult issues"

Peter Dengate Thrush, a New Zealand lawyer, was elected unanimously as the new Chairman of the Board.

"After nine years ICANN is well placed to face the challenges of the future. The fact that it is so well positioned is a tribute to Vint and of course the staff led by Paul Twomey who have taken us out of foundation mode to become the right organization to meet future challenges," Dengate Thrush said.

A news release on Dengate Thrush’s election is available at http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-3-02nov07.htm

Resolutions adopted at the meeting include:

  • The formation of an IDN working group to explore what the process could be for developing a fast-track policy/process for introducing IDNs,
  • Calling on the ICANN community, including the GNSO, ccNSO, ASO, GAC, and ALAC, to provide input on the ccNSO Council's resolution relating to ICANN's Geographic Regions,
  • Having staff continue working on implementation analysis for new gTLDs and to come back to the Board and community as soon as feasible with a report on implementation issues no later than the ICANN Board meeting in January 2008.

All the adopted resolutions can be seen at: http://www.icann.org/minutes/

"The true international nature of ICANN really shined at this meeting. We have a new chair from New Zealand. We had more than 1,100 participants from 132 countries. We signed seven Accountability Frameworks with country-code operators from the Asia-Pacific and from Europe, and we signed an accreditation agreement with the second registrar based in Africa — AFRIREGISTER of Burundi," said Dr Twomey. "We are planning to sign Memorandums of Understanding with both the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission of the Organization of American States (CITEL) and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO). This meeting also saw China Internet Network Information Center become a member of the country-code Names Support Organization."

"One key development was the U.S. Department of Commerce’s announcement of their consult with interested stakeholders on the mid-term review of the Joint Project Agreement they have with ICANN. We expected this and welcome it," Dr Twomey said. "I want to encourage everyone who believes in one global Internet to take part and support the model that ICANN represents."

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