Independent Evaluator Seeks Public Input to At-Large Advisory Committee (‘ALAC’) Review

Westlake Consulting Limited (WCL) was selected by ICANN’s Board of Directors to conduct an independent review of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) . WCL’s review team is gathering information from many different sources, including a series of in-person discussions and briefings at the ICANN meeting in New Delhi, from 10-14 February. WCL will conduct further interviews in person and electronically with a range of people who have an interest, directly or indirectly, in the ALAC, with a view to achieving the objectives of the Review:

• [To determine] whether the ALAC has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure; and,
• If so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness. Continue reading »

ICANN 31st International Public Meeting in New Delhi Next Week

India, Asia represent future of the changing face of the Internet

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will open its 31 st International Public Meeting on 11 February 2008 in New Delhi, India, a country and a region certain to be a the forefront of the waves of changes coming to the Internet.

“India and Asia are at the heart of the Internet’s future — a future that ICANN is working on as we speak,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN’s Board Chairman. “Internet penetration in India is at just over five percent and growing fast — considering that one per cent is 11 million people coming online. ICANN’s work on Internationalized Domain Names and new top-level domains has the potential to reach out to rest of India and begin remaking the Internet as people connect in their own languages and scripts.” Continue reading »

Public Comments Requested on DNS Stability: The Effect of New gTLDs on the Internet Domain Name System

DNS Stability: The Effect of New Generic Top Level Domains on the Internet Domain Name System [PDF, 53K]

The ICANN community has recently completed a policy development process regarding the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). This effort took place within ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) (see http://gnso.icann.org/) and resulted in a set of recommendations to guide ICANN in introducing new gTLDs to the namespace. Continue reading »