ICANN Cairo 2008: Wrapup
Earlier this month I travelled to Cairo to attend ICANN‘s 33rd international public meeting, which brought together Internet policy makers, registries and registrars to talk about key issues. More than 1,700 people from 144 countries attended the conference, which was significantly more than I was expecting, given the travel time for many attendees based in North America and Europe.
The talk of the conference was definitely new gTLDs. Many meetings, workshops and discussions were held on the topic, buoyed by the release of a draft applicant guidebook right before the meeting. The guidebook describes the proposed process for applying for and securing a new gTLD. The process is still up for review and input but expect developments on this front to come fast and furious in 2009.
Other issues discussed at length included “fast-tracking” a set of Internationalized Domain Names for ccTLDs, and DNS security. As usual, a day-long Registrar Constituency session touched on a variety of topics, ranging from recent policy developments involving the Constituency to a meeting with several ICANN staffers. I also spent a great deal of time meeting with registries, existing and potential vendors, and spending time with customers who made the trip as well.
To read more about ICANN’s Cairo meeting and for some on-site video, visit: http://cai.icann.org/en/video
ICANN’s 34th international public meeting will take place March 1-6 in Mexico City.
(image courtesy of icannphotos)
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