ICANN participation

What it is | This working group will prepare an At-Large community statement with respect to the introduction of new generic Top Level Domains (“gTLDs”).

ICANN’s stakeholders have been working together for years on the process by which new gTLDs will be introduced. There are currently only a few gTLDs (like .com, .net, .org) and the new process will allow the introduction of many more, including internationalised domain names (IDNs).

Currently, the ICANN community is reviewing and commenting upon a set of draft documents detailing how the process of adding new gTLDs should work. These consultations will continue in Mexico City with several briefings and public discussions focused on updated draft documents and outstanding issues. This will be a major area of work for ICANN over the course of 2009 and beyond.

It is widely believed that the addition of many new gTLDs (including IDNs) will have important impacts on how Internet end-users interact with the Internet. The At-Large community has made many statements in the past about new gTLDs and is preparing to make further comments this year. You may find multilingual versions of previous At-Large statements at: http://www.atlarge.icann.org/en/correspondence]

Why it is important | TheAt-Large community has played an active role in the new gTLDs process since it began several years ago. As is the case with all segments of the ICANN community, At-Large input into the second stage of the consultation on the draft application process will be extremely important.

Who should attend? | Summit delegates who are members of this working group as well as anyone attending the Mexico City meeting interested in the subject matter.

Interpretation | There will be no simultaneous interpretation for this session.

Remote Participation Options|

1. Telephonic remote participation (English only)
2. Chat between remote participants and those in the room (English, Spanish, and French)

Instructions on how to participate remotely may be found at this URL:
https://st.icann.org/alac-docs/index.cgi?remote_participation_wg3

Chatroom: http://icann.na3.acrobat.com/summit-wg3/

Summit Microsite: The At-Large Summit microsite has complete information at: http://www.atlarge.icann.org/summit.

Working Group 3 Microsite | http://www.atlarge.icann.org/summit/wg/gtlds-en.htm.

Background on At-Large Summit Working Groups

The At-Large community was surveyed in December 2008 and January 2009 and asked to choose in order of importance from amongst 15 of the most important subjects under consideration in the ICANN community today.

Their top five choices overall are the subjects for five working groups that are tasked with drafting and coming to agreement on five statements on these important subjects during the course of the Summit.

Each Summit participant has been assigned to the working group that they selected as of most interest to them; accommodations were made to ensure regional balance and address language needs.

Background: What is the “At-Large Summit”?

The Mexico City meeting is a landmark for ICANN’s At-Large community (“At-Large” is the name used for the individual Internet user community participating in ICANN).

The whole At-Large community will be meeting together face-to-face in the ‘At-Large Summit’. Approximately 90 representatives of At-Large organisations (called “At-Large Structures”) are already confirmed. You will be able to spot them easily, as each will have a ribbon indicating their status as a Summit delegate attached to their ICANN meeting badges.

The Summit is being held 28 February through 5 March 2009 at the Mexico City Sheraton and also at the nearby Melia Mexico Reforma Hotel. All ICANN meeting attendees are invited and encouraged to attend the sessions, all of which are open to everyone.

As proposed by the At-Large community, the Summit has the following objectives:

• Develop the community’s capacity for engagement in ICANN by increasing its knowledge and understanding of the key issues confronting ICANN and ICANN’s roles and responsibilities;
• Provide an opportunity for the community to finalise and present its advice on some of the most important issues facing the ICANN community today; and last but not least,
• Highlight the successes of the community in recent years and build upon them to ensure that the interests of the world’s more than 1 billion individual Internet users are well represented in the development of Internet name and number policy.