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Thank You, ICANN Community: Reflections from Thursday at ICANN50

1 July 2014
By

As another ICANN meeting has come and gone, I wanted to reflect on a moment that, in my eyes, added to making ICANN50 a successful event. With a record number 3,115 attendees and all the remote participants around the world, many representatives of the community were able to participate both individually and with their communities in the middle of a very pivotal moment in Internet history.

The ICANN community has embarked on two large initiatives. One is an assessment of strengthening ICANN's accountability mechanisms in light of its changing historical relationship with the US administration. This means looking at mechanisms already in place and whether they should evolve to better serve the greater multistakeholder community. The other concerns the process of transitioning NTIA's stewardship of the IANA functions.

If you would like more information on these initiatives, I have tried to explain both in further detail in a video located here.

On Thursday, the last day of the ICANN meeting, we scheduled special sessions dedicated to these two initiatives - Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Transition of NTIA's Stewardship of IANA Functions. The community dialogue focused on important questions and topics for discussion about the two processes. Both sessions experienced fruitful engagement in full rooms, and provided very valuable discussion and feedback as these processes move forwards.

The two sessions were not limited to only the ICANN meeting room. In an effort to engage the broader community, the session panels engaged in active dialogue and received comments from both the live streaming chat room as well as, and for the first time at an ICANN meeting, from more than a dozen interactive hubs across the world. I want to take a moment to thank all those involved in organizing these hubs and participated in the discussions from multiple time zones, furthering ICANN's goal of global inclusivity. It was remarkable sitting in London and receiving live feedback from stakeholders in the Philippines, Cameroon, Kenya, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago and Pakistan. It truly was a historic moment for ICANN.

In addition, I want to thank all of those who helped organize these two sessions, moderate and participate, and for all the useful dialogue at the end of a long week. It is this kind of community engagement that will build the strongest foundation during this critical time for the Internet and its advancement.

Transcripts and presentation materials from both of these sessions and others can be found by visiting the ICANN50 meeting schedule.

I also invite the community to visit the NTIA IANA Functions' Stewardship Transition microsite to find resources, discuss, contribute and collaborate on stewardship topics related to NTIA's announcement and intent to transition its stewardship role in the IANA functions.

I hope all of you will continue to participate in these processes as they move along. After all, they belong to you!

Authors

Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy