The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers organization's (ICANN org) Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) Technical Engagement and Global Stakeholder Engagement teams enjoyed a good balance of virtual and physical engagement opportunities in 2022. The team organized and participated in 38 virtual sessions and 22 in-person events during the calendar year. We attended events in person in many different Caribbean countries, as well as in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
During 2021, we learned that a continuous set of virtual meetings targeted for a specific country or technical association has the potential to reach a large and dispersed audience. The frequency of the virtual sessions is important to create strong ties and even friendships among the participants.
With the possibility of in-person activities back in our toolbox, we began visiting our friends whom we had only met online during the previous few years. What we noticed during these visits was the ease and frictionless environment created when our audience was already familiar with the engagement topics.
This year, we also participated in many regional events. We attended the Latin American and the Caribbean Internet Registry (LACNIC) 38 meeting and LACNIC's 20-year celebration, where we engaged in several activities with the community. We also participated in events hosted by the LAC Group of Network Operators (LACNOG), the LAC Association of Country Code Top Level Domains (LACTLD), the South School of Internet Governance (SSIG), the Diploma in Internet Governance (DIGI), the National Technical University in Argentina, and the Inter American Telecommunications Commission (CITEL, OAS). CITEL meetings host regulators and policymakers from across the entire Americas region.
We are convinced that we should keep pursuing this synergistic blend of virtual and in-person engagement whenever possible, depending, of course, on the wishes of community members involved. The critical factor, as we experienced with great satisfaction, is maintaining good collaboration between us (ICANN org regional teams) and the organization representing the audience.
For this kind of support, we are thankful to the Internet Chamber of Argentina (CABASE), the National Association of Internet Providers of Ecuador (APROSVA), the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organizations (CANTO), the Association of Internet Service Providers of Paraguay (ASISPY), the Internet Access Point (NAP) Colombia, the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br) and the National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions (ANUIES) for reaching out to their members and encouraging participation in our joint activities. We would also like to thank the many local, regional, and international organizations that invited us to participate in these activities and engagement opportunities.
We expect good news going forward. The recent launch of ICANN's KINDNS (Knowledge-Sharing and Instantiating Norms for DNS and Naming Security) program opened another dimension for technical engagement. The availability of self-assessment tools, combined with the easy-to-implement best practices and public recognition of participants provides a self-paced framework where DNS administrators can enhance their systems on demand.
We had a great experience during the 2022 IX Forum in São Paulo. After delivering a 20-minute speech in which we demonstrated how to join KINDNS, Brazilian Internet service providers quickly understood the value and were the first organizations recognized as "KINDNS Private-Shared Resolvers'' members. We would like to congratulate i8 Digital, the Brazilian National Research Network, and Brazil TecPar for this achievement and welcome them to the KINDNS community. Surely, many more organizations will come onboard in the coming days.
We look forward to continuing our collaborative efforts in 2023 with our long-time partners and hopefully, some new friends.
