[npoc-voice] Historic Singapore Meeting Marks the Beginning a New Phase for ICANN

[Rudi Vansnick <rudi.vansnick@xxxxxxx>]

[http://www.icann.org/images/gradlogo_bow.jpg]<http://www.icann.org/>
News Alert

http://www.icann.org/en/news/press/releases/release-28mar14-en

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Historic Singapore Meeting Marks the Beginning a New Phase for ICANN

28 March 2014

Singapore… The President and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names 
and Numbers (ICANN) says the organization's 49th meeting that just concluded in 
Singapore marked the beginning of a new era for the organization and the future 
of Internet governance.

"ICANN49 will be remembered as a meeting that, in many ways, ended the early 
phase of ICANN and brought the organization into a new phase of maturity and 
responsibility," said Fadi Chehadé. "It is exemplified by the recent decision 
of the United States Government to hand us the very ominous responsibility to 
facilitate and convene the world toward determining how ICANN will be providing 
assurances of accountability across the board."

Chehadé made the comments during a video 
interview<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY3DbUVzyHQ&feature=youtu.be> at the 
conclusion of the Singapore meeting, for which more 1,940 people registered 
from 150 countries.

"People from all over the world, from all segments of the Internet community 
are here, interacting not just with ICANN, but also interacting with each 
other," said Dr. Stephen Crocker, ICANN's Board Chair.

The Singapore meeting was dominated by discussions stemming from the recent 
announcement by the U.S. Government that it wants to transfer stewardship of 
some vital Internet technical functions to provide for global accountability. 
It has reached out to ICANN, which will continue to manage those functions as 
it has for more than 15 years, to help determine the best process for 
transferring that stewardship.

"These are important times," said Chehadé. "The U.S. Government has modulated 
its stewardship over time, it has dialed it down and this was just a natural 
moment for all this to happen, as the U.S. government has said, due to the 
community's readiness to actually embrace these responsibilities and establish 
the appropriate accountability mechanisms to replace the U.S. role."

###

To view the video interview with ICANN President Fadi Chehadé and Board Chair 
Dr. Stephen D. Crocker, go here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY3DbUVzyHQ&feature=youtu.be

To learn more about the transfer of the Internet technical functions, go here: 
http://www.icann.org/en/about/agreements/iana/transition

To download high resolution photos from the ICANN meeting go here: 
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=icann49

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Brad White
ICANN Director of Global Media Affairs
Washington, D.C.
Tel. +1 (202) 570 7118
brad.white@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:brad.white@xxxxxxxxx>

James Cole
ICANNGlobal Media Coordinator
Washington, D.C.
Tel. +1 (202) 570 7139
james.cole@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:james.cole@xxxxxxxxx>

Liana Teo
Head of Communications for Asia Pacific
Singapore
Tel. +65 6808 6669
liana.teo@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:liana.teo@xxxxxxxxx>

Andrew Robertson
Edelman Public Relations
London, U.K.
Tel. +44 (7811) 341 945
andrew.robertson@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:andrew.robertson@xxxxxxxxxxx>

About ICANN: ICANN's mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global 
Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address 
into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so 
computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique 
identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one 
global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit 
public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated 
to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes 
competition and develops policy on the Internet's unique identifiers. ICANN 
doesn't control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn't 
deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the 
Internet's naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and 
evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: 
www.icann.org<http://www.icann.org/>.

Rudi Vansnick
NPOC chair Policy Committee
NPOC treasurer
rudi.vansnick@xxxxxxxx
Tel : +32 (0)9 329 39 16
Mobile : +32 (0)475 28 16 32
www.npoc.org