ICANN | ICANN Opens 25th International Meeting in Wellington, New Zealand

ICANN Opens 25th International Meeting in Wellington, New Zealand

27 March 06

ICANN's 25th International meeting officially opens in Wellington, New Zealand today. The meeting, which runs from March 25-31, sees stakeholders from the technical community, business and government and civil society, participate in over 30 meetings and workshops, covering some of the most important issues relating to the ongoing stability, scrutiny and growth of the Internet. These meetings constitute an essential part of ICANN's global consensus-development and outreach efforts.

Some of the highlights of the week will be:

The Board will consider the ICANN Strategic Plan 2006-2009
Discussions relating to the ongoing reform of ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC)
A public meeting of ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) will consider the challenge of alternative TLD name systems and root services on the stability of the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS).
The SSAC will also examine recent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on the DNS and identify near- and long-term measures to reduce the threat of similar attacks
Community discussion of both the policy and technical trial issues in introducing IDN top-level domains
An Internet user's forum to discuss new Top Level Domains (TLDs), designed to ensure the launching process meets the needs for the world's user and registrants
A public workshop on Internet governance, with a special focus on local Internet community issues including relations with country code Top Level Domains (TLDs), and local Internet community involvement in the international discussions on Internet governance, the formation and participation in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and implementation of the WSIS outcomes in relation to respective organisations.

Commenting on this week's meeting, Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN, said: "We anticipate a very productive meeting in Wellington. Particularly important will be discussions relating to the GAC, which we hope will continue to evolve and play an increasingly significant role as the voice of international governments in our public-private partnership.

"The completion of ICANN's Strategic Plan is an important step in addressing the future challenges of the DNS and Internet. This is a plan involving ICANN's multi-stakeholder constituencies and is a blue print for international, multi-party cooperation."

According to Dr Twomey, Friday's Pacifika IT Day targets attendees who have a particular interest in Internet developments in the Pacific Islands.

"This meeting has particular relevance on a local level as the issues of access and availability of the Internet in the Pacific Islands are unique in comparison to the world. We are pleased to have the opportunity to engage with the local community groups and learn more," he said. The official opening, which includes a formal address by Minister for IT and Communications, Hon. David Cunliffe, will commence at 9.00am (NZ), Monday March 27 at Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre and will be webcast. Remote participation is welcome.

The complete schedule for ICANN's Wellington meeting, as well as links to webcast sessions, can be found at: <http://media1.icann.org/ramgen/broadcast/wellington.rm>

Details for the Pasifika IT Day can be found at <www.Pasifika-it.com>

About ICANN:

ICANN is an internationally organised, public benefit non-profit responsible for coordinating Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.

Media Contacts:

Wellington
Siobhan Robertson, Blackie McDonald
Ph: +64 21 206 5958
E: siobhan.robertson@bmcd.com.au

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

Tanzanica King, ICANN (USA)
Ph: +1 310 301 5804
E: tanzanica.king@icann.org

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers