News > Internet Governance

ICANN Meeting Opens in Argentina

04/04/2005 (HAHA) -- At the picturesque coastal city of Mar Del Plata, Argentina, 463 internet community members are gathered to discuss various issues concerning the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Top on the agenda is the recognition of AfriNIC as a Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa. The ICANN board is expected to meet later this week and give AfriNIC its much anticipated seal of approval. The Latin America and Caribbean Internet Address Registry (LACNIC) has already been recognised as a RIR.
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In his key note address, the mayor of Mar Del Plata Daniel Katz welcomed the participants and invited them to tour the beaches and other attractions the city offers. He thanked ICANN for choosing the city to host the meeting because it will market the city's facilities worldwide. This is ICANN's 22nd international public meeting and the fourth to be held in Latin America.

"The meeting will help us get known and acknowledged world wide and debate the important subject of permanent inclusion of countries in the network. But not everything is work, we should all enjoy ourselves," Katz said.

Alejandro Pisante, ICANN vice chairman noted that the internet goes beyond the economic facts and figures and gives us an opportunity to take new decisions to develop ourselves. The internet, he added, provides unique opportunities for cooperation between governments and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

According to Vint Cerf, ICANN board chairman, the meetings constitute an essential part of the organisation's global consensus-development and outreach efforts. ICANN's agenda for this meeting includes: Domain Name System (DNS) security, domain name hijacking, the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), regional at-large meetings with user groups from across Latin America, Whois policy development, and the deployment of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs).

The public meeting of ICANN's International Board of Directors will take place on April 8. Items that the ICANN Board will review include: AfriNIC's application for recognition as a Regional Internet Registry, corporate governance principles and guidelines, IANA policy for allocation of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) blocks to Regional Internet Registries .

The board is also expected to discuss the designation of new sponsored Top-Level Domains (sTLDs), proposed changes to ICANN bylaws regarding new ASO MoU, and the proposed change to ICANN bylaws regarding the number of GNSO council representatives.

ICANN has expressed its appreciation to CABASE, the hosts for this meeting in Argentina. CABASE is the local association of ISPs, Domain name registrars and telecommunication companies.

Date: 04/04/2005
Location: International
Theme: Internet Governance
Source: HAHA
Contact: Rebecca Wanjiku