*** Disclosure: The following is the output resulting from transcribing an audio file into a word/text document. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages and grammatical corrections. It is posted as an aid to the original audio file, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.*** Welcome Ceremony ICANN Meeting - Singapore Monday, 20 June 2011 >> Ladies and gentlemen, if you would please take your seats, we would like to begin our welcome ceremony. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. We are going to begin our program. (Music) >> Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, chair, ICANN Board of Directors, Peter Dengate Thrush. [ Applause ] >>MR. PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Singapore, and good morning, everybody. I have just been speaking to the minister who I am about to introduce and she was explaining the significance of that extraordinary demonstration we have just seen. The idea is it's to help us calm our thoughts, get rid of evil influences, and the appearance of a dragon rather than a lion in Singapore means this is a very special occasion. So thank you, ladies and gentlemen, of the performing troupe. [ Applause ] >>MR. PETER DENGATE THRUSH: This is, indeed, a special occasion and I want to welcome everybody to ICANN's 41st international public meeting. And it's great to be back in Singapore. And you might say it's a home coming of sorts for many of us because our very first international meeting was held here in Singapore in the international convention and exhibition center in February and March of 1999. In fact, some of you in the room today were at that meeting, as I was, 11 years ago. That very first ICANN meeting ran for all of three days. Committee meetings the first day, an opening meeting the next, and a board meeting to wrap things up. And 40 meetings later, that structure remains the foundation of our international public meetings. So for those of you who weren't there, what was the first ICANN meeting talking about? What was the brand-new ICANN community discussing in 1999? And some of the issues were familiar to you. The domain name Supporting Organization proposals were coming in as to how to build what became the DNSO. We had a report from a brand-new Governmental Advisory Committee, meeting privately because they weren't sure what their reception was going to be and chaired by a rather tall Australian government official who we later came to know very well as our CEO. And a report from the DNS root server system advisory committee. But the community also came together to talk about internal ICANN policies and politics. Remember, this was February and March of 1999. ICANN was only a few months old. There were nuts-and-bolts issues to be discussed and decided, how to hire people. We knew we needed more than we had. We only had two or three staffs We had to develop conflict-of-interest guidelines. We knew we were going to be having consumers and suppliers and providers in all parts of retail and wholesale chain of the domain name industry in the same room making policy. So clearly establishing conflict rules was necessary. Finances were a terrible issue. We didn't have any money. We had a small loan from one of the major companies, and much of the first expenditure was financed by staff personal credit cards. Rod, perhaps we go back to that. I'm not sure, there may be some.... [ Laughter ] >>MR. PETER DENGATE THRUSH: So ICANN was taking its first steps on the international stage here in Singapore. And the Domain Name System itself was a very different place. There was all of 171 million Internet users across the globe. What we thought at the time was a staggering number. 56% of those original 170 million users came from Canada and the United States. Just 15% came from the Asia-Pacific region, and less than 5% of the global citizen community was connected. Today, of course, over 2 billion users. Fewer than 14% come from North America, as the technology has spread across the globe. 44% are from Asia. So ICANN and the Internet together have truly become global. Now our meetings one-run for a full time five days and we start with two days of preliminary meetings, and I can tell you there is considerable pressure on us to extend that period and we see meetings being added on the front end and back end. The board and staff come from all over the globe as does the community. And the volunteers who drive our supporting organizations come from every continent except Antarctica. We have got offices now in three continents. And it's not just the people and the processes that are global. So are our issues. The Internationalized Domain Name System is changing the address bars of the browsers, accessing across the globe. There are now 30 IDNs in the root representing 20 nations and territories and 21 different languages. And as we move forward, it will be more than just country code IDNs. Our new gTLD program will soon be the foundation of an Internet that will make it possible for people across the globe to get their name in their language and script to make it their Internet. And ICANN continues to collaborate with the ccTLD managers, with scientists and technologists and governments from across the world to enhance the security of this greatest shared communication resource of all time. Sweden was the first country to implement DNSSEC at the root back in 2005. Thanks to the combined efforts of registries around the world, the new security protocol will soon be available to the majority of domain name registrants in almost a quarter of the TLDs. And today, of the 310 top-level domains, 74 are signed, and 70 have trust anchors, published as DS records in the root zone, meaning their fully DNSSEC compatible. And what was it that makes all these efforts so important? And it stretches beyond the work itself. It's something greater than the goal of each of these individual initiatives. What's at stake and what we are here this week to help grow is the Internet itself. Not merely the technical connections and agreements, not just the transfer of packets and megabytes. What we are working on is the most powerful tool for transforming our society that we have ever seen. So let me just step aside a little bit from that and talk about the place that we've gathered today, the lion city of Singapore, because there's a hint in the story of this city about the possibilities that could change the Internet. Let me refer you to a recent book: "Physics of the Future." Respected American physicist, author Michio Kaku, speaks with colleagues at the cutting edge of various fields across the sciences. His goal is to predict what the world will be like in one century. And part of that prediction is based on what he calls the lessons of Singapore. Kaku delves into the story of this city state. And thanks to a speech by Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. And it was his vision that guided the independence and development of our host city and host country. When Lee first came to Singapore, it was famous, mostly as a backwater port known for piracy, smuggling and as a stopping off point for sailors. It was a city with no significant natural resources other than it's people who were, of course, hard working and semi-skilled. And what he forged from that beginning was the fifth richest nation on earth. In a few decades, that nation was revolutionized through science, education, and a focus on high tech industries. The workforce is now highly skilled, building, selling and developing electronics, chemicals, biomedical equipment exported to the world. Of course there were bumps on the road. Top scientists didn't want to stay here. There were no cultural amenities or attractions to be found. So Lee's government founded Foster the Arts, ballet, symphonies and the theater, and the scientists stayed. And so Singapore today ranks among the top nations for science. So to me, what Lee and Singapore accomplished reminds us of the power of the Internet and why we're here today. The Internet now is the same tool that connects people to culture, to fellow researchers, to cutting-edge technologies. But it's not these things in and of itself but it what it makes possible for the creation, sharing and adoption. And the miracle that happened in Singapore can happen the rest of the world over with the help of the Internet. And that's why our work here is so important. Because it's poignant for me because as many ever you know this will be my last meeting in my role as chair. What makes it significant is the work we are going to achieve in the week ahead. We are going to be talking about how we can keep working together to make sure the Domain Name System is more secure. We're going to be talking about how we can unleash its potential to connect people in new ways, thanks to new gTLDs. And we're going to continue talking about the Internationalized Domain Name System and how we can spread that and continue connecting new languages, new names and new people to the global Internet. We are going to talk about many more things. After all, the Internet and the work we support are enormous. So let me close by thanking you all for coming here to help us with this important work, and all that it may bring. And now, on behalf of the ICANN board, I welcome you and declare the 41st international public meeting of ICANN open. Thank you. [ Applause ] >>MR. PETER DENGATE THRUSH: It's now my great pleasure to introduce our official representative from the government of Singapore, the Minister of state for information and communications, Ms. Grace Fu. In a speech last near Ms. Fu said man has always been driven to create innovation devices to improve his life. We see all around us how man's creativity has shaped our world. And we have to say having come here, Singapore is the living embodiment of this idea. We're in one of the few countries in the world with broadband access readily available to just about any would-be user anywhere in the country. But that's not the end. It's just the beginning, because Singapore's intelligent nation plan is aiming to go further. They are building ultra-high-speed pervasive, intelligent and trusted infocomm infrastructure. They are fostering a globally competitive infocomm industry, and they are developing an infocomm savvy workforce and a globally competitive infocomm trained manpower. So as Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Information Communications, it is happening, Ms. Fu, under your watch. So please join me, ladies and gentlemen, in welcoming Ms. Grace Fu to the ICANN stage. Ms. Fu. [ Applause ] >>MS. GRACE FU: Welcome. Mr. Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman. ICANN board, Mr. Rod Beckstrom, CEO of ICANN, ladies and gentlemen, it is, indeed, my great pleasure to join all of you here this morning at the 41st ICANN public meeting. And Singapore is deeply honored to be able to play host to this annual meeting. I would especially like to extend a warm welcome to all overseas delegates, and I hope you will have time to explore a bit more of Singapore in your time here. And thank you very much for being here, because with your presence, our official mobile phone penetration rate and broadband penetration rate has just gone up. [ Laughter ] >>MS. GRACE FU: Now, hands up to those who do not have more than one laptop with you. [ Laughter ] >>MS. GRACE FU: Just going around and I am just amazed at the number of mobile gadgets you have. The rapid evolvement of the Internet has had a great impact on social and economic development worldwide. We are inundated by the sheer amount of information available online. And a good many of us have been caught up in the web of social networking. In this regard, ICANN plays an important role in bringing together the global Internet community to build understanding and appreciation of challenges facing the Internet, as well as to facilitate discussions to address these challenges. Given the pervasiveness of the Internet in our society and our daily lives, we are understandably concerned with the stability, security and the continued usability. One of the ways to ensure the security of the Internet is through the management of the Domain Name System, or DNS. I note that DNS abuse is one of the greatest Internet security vulnerabilities exploited for cybercrime, child pornography, identity theft, spam, and phishing. Hence, the effective and secure management of the DNS will serve to prevent inaccuracies of information as well as any potential cyber attacks and abuse. In line with ICANN's efforts to preserve the operational stability of the Internet, Singapore has, through the Singapore Network Information Centre, or SGNIC, signed an exchange of letters for ICANN in late 2009 to express our commitment to operate and maintain authoritative name servers for the dot SG domain in a stable and secure manner. I note that IDA and SGNIC have also formed a task force in collaboration with various stakeholders to look into the protection of our dot SG domain names in cyberspace as well as to promote the awareness and adoption of domain name system security extensions, or DNSSEC, through training and information sharing. At the international level, to accelerate DNSSEC adoption and provide a secure facility for the hosting of a critical Internet infrastructure, Singapore is also participating in the DNSSEC signer platform for Country Code Top Level Domains. This is a joint initiative by a packet clearinghouse and ICANN. I'm pleased to share that Singapore will host the third global site for the PCH at St. Joseph at the premises of the National University of Singapore. With the exponential growth of the Internet, Internet protocol addresses are also being consumed at the rapid pace with all available IPv4 addresses expected to be exhausted very soon. ICANN and its stakeholders have been monitoring the issue closely. Singapore, in preparation for this, has developed a multi-prong approach to holistically address the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. Besides working at the government level to incorporate IPv6 requirements in national projects, such as the next generation nationwide broadband network, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore will be providing seed funding to spur the industry's initial adoption of IPv6 technologies for the Internet-facing services. IDA will also be facilitating technical training to grow the pool of IPv6 competent technical experts to complement the ongoing based training programs for infocomm professionals. IDA is launching a public consultation today to solicit views if there is a need for Internet access service providers to ensure the seamless transition from IPv4 to IPv6 by users. In addition, IDA will also be putting in place controlled measurements to ensure that there is no lag in the performance of IPv6 services as compared to those provided on the current IPv4. I note that one of inclusiveness is also a key focus of ICANN's initiatives. Many recognize the Internet as a game changer and an important leveler that allows even the less privileged and those of disabilities to seek equal opportunities available to the general public. In Singapore, while about 82% of households here have linked up to a broadband connection at home, 16% of households still do not have basic computer access at home. To this, IDA has implemented a series of digital inclusion efforts to bridge this digital divide as part of IDA's intelligent nation in 2015 master plan to build an infocomm savvy nation. These initiatives include the new PC class program which gives assistance to students from low-income households the establishment of infocomm accessibility center where those with disabilities can be empowered relevant ICT skills to enhance their integration into society, and the silver comm initiative, which offers affordable infocomm training and customized curriculum for senior citizens. In closing, I'd like to commend ICANN for organizing this meeting which serve as important platforms to discuss issues pertaining to the future of the Internet and the sustainability as well as provide opportunities for members to share experiences and perspectives, to foster a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities brought forth by the Internet. I wish everyone here a fruitful discussion ahead. Thank you very much. [ Applause ] >>MR. ROD BECKSTROM: Thank you very much, Minister Fu. I'd now like to introduce Ms. Aileen Chia, Deputy Director General of the Info Communications Development Authority of Singapore. She oversees policy and competition development for the IDA, contributing to that organization's commitment to growing Singapore into a dynamic global information hub. In addition to developing and implementing the regulatory policies that have created a competitive infocomm sector in Singapore, she was an instrumental part to make Singapore one of the first few countries to fully liberate the postal services sector. Ms. Chia holds a bachelor's degree in economics with honors and a master's of public policy from the national university of Singapore. Ms. Chia. [ Applause ] >>MS. AILEEN CHIA: Mr. Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN board, Mr. Rod Beckstrom, CEO ICANN, gentlemen, good morning and welcome to Singapore. In the last decade, the world of infocomm has witnessed innovations that have brought about pervasive and profound changes to our every day lives, work and play. Internet protocol for IP-based services and applications connecting people, businesses, and communities are offering diverse suite of information services, communications, productivity tools, commerce opportunities, entertainment options and more. The deployment of high-speed fix line and wireless broadband networks have brought the Internet to everyone and everywhere, and has accelerated these transformational changes. The Internet today has become an integral part of our lives. Many organizations regard it as a critical infrastructure for the success of the businesses. And many individuals, like us in this room today, rely on it for personal communication, information, news, making purchases, and even making friends. The Internet has brought together the traditionally separate worlds of Infocomm, broadcast, and media and has brought about a new era of conversions. The success of Internet is a large part due to its unique model of shared global ownership. Open standard development and easily accessible processes for technology and policy development. Singapore has always maintained that Internet governance must be inclusive and responsive. And it is not the sole domain of governments. IDA recognizes the benefits of a partnership approach by governments, industry, and a civil society work together to shape the development of the Internet. Broadly speaking, government's role to be to implement policies that would ensure citizens success to a safe and secure Internet and to create a conducive environment for service providers and operators to provide innovative services in a hands-on infrastructure. The private sector would be best placed to deal with technology, technical, and commercial aspects of the Internet architecture. While the civil society organizations and individual communities would have a role in creating relevant content, community services that cater to the needs and the situations of different societies and promoting responsible use of the Internet. Over the years, ICANN has played an important role in the development of the Internet. Through its multi-stakeholder approach. It has served as an important catalyst in allowing active and purposeful participation of all ICANN stakeholders and the broader Internet community. It has also provided an effective platform to facilitate community consensus building in the formulation of many ICANN policies, initiatives and activities that have brought about significant progress. The holistic and shared responsibility approach taken by ICANN has worked well for the development of the Internet to date. For sustainable development going forward, it is important that we continue to engage the many voices affecting and being affected by the Internet. A clear demonstration of this multi-stakeholder approach is ICANN's new generic top-level domain name or new gTLD program, which, potentially, hopefully, will see numerous new gTLDs like dot shop, dot car, dot movie into the Internet. We have come a long way, and I know many of us in this room have worked very hard and have played an important role in bringing this piece of work to where it is today. We're now very close to seeing a new gTLD program come into fruition. And I sincerely thank the collaborative efforts of ICANN and GNSO, GAC, ccNSO and ALAC and other committees who have worked together painstakingly to address and resolve many complex issues. [Applause] The many principles and policy discussions that have been developed over the last three years, arising from the development of the new gTLD framework, can also serve useful references for country code top- level domain names or ccTLD communities to adapt, to fine-tune the local policies and make them more robust and effective. Another example of this multistakeholder approach is the enabling of multilingual TLDs. The internet today is no longer monolingual. When it was first commercialized in the early 1990s, the Internet community recognized the need to embrace language diversity and to bring about a multilingual platform to cater to the language preferences and the needs of many peoples around the world. We applaud both the ICANN and the international community's efforts over the last 10 years in bringing about the internationalized domain names to fruition. The IDN initiatives and the development work started as early as the 1990s. Since then, the community has worked cooperatively to overcome various challenges, be they technical, policy, economic, or social ones. It is heartening to note that the pervasiveness and the perseverance of the pioneers, researchers -- including those from National University of Singapore -- some of them may be here today -- has now benefited so many countries in introducing IDNs to meet the diverse needs in language and culture at the domestic front. To date there are more than 30 application requests for IDN ccTLDs, and at least 20 countries have had their IDN ccTLDs delegated to them. I'm pleased to highlight that Singapore launched Chinese and Tamal IDN ccTLDs last week. And registrations for these IDNs will commence from July onwards. We're confident that the launch of the IDN ccTLDs will greatly benefit end users, especially businesses which need to reach out to communities who predominantly use Chinese or Tamal as their working language. With the proliferation of the Internet and many services another issue sprang up in the recent years -- net neutrality. Specifically, net neutrality refers to Internet or network service providers or Internet services treating all sources of Internet content equally and the right for consumer to access content and services on the Internet on a non-discriminatory basis. IDA has consulted on this issue, and we issued our decision last week. Our approach on this is a balanced one that allows consumers reasonable access to the Internet. And, at the same time, provides businesses and telecom operators with sufficient commercial flexibility to differentiate their services. Our stance on net neutrality hinges on a 3-pronged approach. The first is to enhance and promote competition amongst retail service providers in the market to allow market forces to drive operators' behavior. Competition can reduce the incentive of operators to engage in practices that restrict consumer choice in terms of what is accessible over the Internet. To this end, the Singapore Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, or NGNBN, has been structured in an open-access manner with structural and functional separation requirements to catalyze service competition and development in a new environment. This is accompanied by regulatory frameworks on interconnection and competition that checks discriminatory practices. The second prong is to increase information transparency for consumers to make informed choices on Internet access services. Issues like traffic management or the discrepancies between actual and advertised Internet access speeds have often been cited as issues that affect the surfing experience. But it remains opaque to consumers. In the past few years, IDN has imposed requirements on residential broadband service providers to publish their network management practices so that consumers know and can better choose the service providers based on their surfing needs. We're glad the service providers in Singapore are moving in this direction and are beginning to advertise and publish typical access speeds. On our own, IDA regularly tests and publishes on our Web site the performance of broadband services in Singapore to help consumers navigate the variety of broadband services and choices in the market. The third prong is to ensure that consumers enjoy a reasonable quality of access to the Internet. In this respect, IDA prohibits operators from blocking legitimate Internet content. Since 2001, IDA has also imposed quality of service requirements on broadband, fixed-line service providers, including maximum latency prescriptions for local and international network access. We believe that Singapore is the first, if not amongst the first regulators who have done so in the world. While the Internet has brought significant benefits to our economies and our societies, it is clear that there are areas of challenges and unfinished work, which the international community should continue to work on so that businesses and consumers can continue to benefit from the Internet. We should continue to develop and review our policies and frameworks to bring about an Internet that would encourage greater innovation, secure use, and inclusiveness. In closing, I would like to extend my best wishes for your many discussions taking place this week. And I hope you have an impactful and fruitful discussion which will impact the workings of the Internet across the world. I wish you success at ICANN's 41st meeting. At the same time have an enjoyable stay in Singapore. Thank you. [Applause] >>MR. ROD BECKSTROM: "Come, come, whoever you are, just come." These are the words of the beloved 13th century poet Rumi. They were shared with us by the Chief of Cabinet to the President of Turkey in Ankara just a few weeks ago. And they echo the philosophy that has brought us together once again: ICANN's door is open. It is open to everyone, no matter your nationality, your language, your position, your level of expertise, or your opinion. It is open because the unique voice matters to the future of the Internet. Welcome to ICANN 41 and to wonderful Singapore. It is a living example of the transformative power of technology. In 2011, for the second year in a row, Singapore was rated as the second most connected country in the world, thanks to your leadership and others in the government and private sector. ICANN's first public meeting was held here back in 1999, as Peter mentioned. We welcome our special guests today who honor us with their presence, Miss Grace Fu, Senior Minister of the State for Information, Communications and the Arts; and Ms. Aileen Chia, Deputy Director-General of the Info Communications Development Authority. They have spearheaded a national effort to ensure Singapore's smooth transition to IPv6. The Singapore Internet exchange is now a major Internet hub in the region serving our interconnected world. I would also like to recognize Asia's Internet leaders, including Professor Tan Tin Wee of Singapore for his pioneering work on Internationalized Domain Names; Dr. Wu Jianping of China, winner of the 2010 Jon Postel award; Professor Kilman Chon of Korea; James Sang for his contributions in advancing the development of IDNs; and Professor Jun Murai of Japan's wide network who have done so much to advance the Internet. (Applause) I know James is here. I don't know who else is. They are a reflection of Asia's legacy of achievement in the high-tech field. A legacy based on solid engineering excellence, ingenuity, creativity, and a lot of hard work. We're also deeply grateful to Leong Kung Thai, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and the Singapore Network Information Centre for their generosity and the unparalleled hospitality in hosting this meeting and for the attention they have paid to every detail to ensure the success of this key event in ICANN's history. And I ask you: Have you ever had such great hotel food before? It's amazing. As we gather here, we face a number of important issues. A decision is expected shortly on new generic top-level domains. Recommendations of the accountability and transparency review team, including implementation plans are due for action by the board of directors. And a new chair -- I know there's some interest in that. And a new chair and vice chair of the board will also be elected this week. This is a truly significant moment in ICANN's history. According to a recent study by McKinsey Global Institute, the Internet contributed about $1.7 trillion to the global gross domestic product in 2009. The Internet overall is contributing about 3.4% of global GDP, according to the study. In more mature economies, 21% of all economic growth -- 21%! -- over the last five years can be attributed to the Internet. At a time when the world needs more jobs, our efforts to open up and advance the Internet and the DNS can be a contributing factor. For every job lost through technological advances, 2.6 are created, according to the study. That's a good ratio. This increase in employment and the resulting productivity boost have led to higher living standards and greater wealth worldwide. They have also become key factors in international efforts to alleviate poverty and spread education in developing countries. And this is a potent argument for keeping the Internet open and unified as we do. The Internet advances economies through innovation. It provides a global launch pad for ideas that will generate tomorrow's great economic opportunities. It empowers creative thought and risk-taking. And never, never in the history of mankind, has there been a more fertile field for innovation to grow in. Here in Asia you have much to be proud of. South Korea and Japan enjoy the fastest broadband access speeds in the world, reportedly, far surpassing the United States and many European countries. In Japan the average access speed for broadband is 84 megabits per second. In the United States, 17. Asia has 42% of the world's Internet users, more than 800 million people, 400 million in China alone. It has grown -- the user population has grown by more than 600% since the year 2000. According to Cisco, global internet traffic will quadruple by 2015. 42% of that growth will be here in Asia. China alone is expected to have 670 million users by 2015. The Internet's mega economic impact and its potential for greater growth and influence make ICANN -- and our role collectively -- more important. Our economic future depends on maintaining a stable domain name system in order to provide the foundation for continued communication and innovation. ICANN must part of the dialogue to ensure that this role is understood and to advance our common goal of a secure, stable, and unified global Internet. A key element of that dialogue is the Internet Governance Forum. Through the dedicated work of many stakeholders, the IGF's mandate has been extended for five years, thanks to the efforts of many of you. At the same time, the U.N. called for changes that could profoundly alter the IGF's form and function. ICANN is contributing to their development through the Commission on Science and Technology for Development. And we look forward to participating in future IGFs, including in lovely Nairobi, Kenya, this September. Engagement with governments is also fundamental to ICANN's role and to the very future of the Internet. In representing governments at ICANN, the Governmental Advisory Committee, or GAC, continues its growth, indicating that governments are increasing their participation in our work. The GAC's significant role in ICANN, of course, complements many other groups. This constructive international engagement was well-demonstrated in the board-GAC consultations in Brussels and in sorting through 80 complex and challenging issues related to new gTLDs. It demonstrates that once again the multistakeholder model is alive and working. And now for today's big news. Every ICANN public meeting is important. But this meeting is particularly important for an obvious reason. This morning the board of directors will consider whether to approve a program to introduce new generic top-level domains into the DNS. It has been -- do I need to tell you? -- a long, long, long, hard road. But we are here. Almost six years after the formal policy development process began, we're facing a decision today on whether to move ahead with one of the most significant changes in the history of the Internet and the DNS. And a lot of people thought we would never get here. If the board votes to approve the new gTLD program, the name space of the Internet could expand dramatically with the promise of significant economic impact. Many organizations with an online presence will be affected in some way. This represents great opportunity as well as some risk that we must and will manage. New businesses are already poised to move forward. Consulting businesses to advise applicants have sprung up. Over 120 organizations have publicly said they intend to apply and declared applications. And more than 90 have active Web sites marketing their proposed new concepts and ideas. This is innovation at its best. They are proposing all types of new gTLDs -- city names, community ideas, branding opportunities for companies and products, IGOs, and others. This demonstrates the rich platform for innovation that new gTLDs represent. Others are preparing to take advantage of the upcoming change even if they do not intend to apply for TLDs themselves. Development of the new gTLD program continues to be conducted in a highly transparent, inclusive, and comprehensive fashion. And this has continued here over the last several days. The community has contributed to tremendous lengths to address the concerns of all interested parties and to seek balance among them. Some claim that ICANN stands to profit from this new program. This is not true. The program will be run on a cost-recovery basis as designed by you, the community, and as approved by the ICANN board, if approved by the ICANN board. As CEO, I have neither advocated nor opposed this program. Now that this phase has been completed, I will be raising my hand to vote. This was a strategic decision I made when I came to ICANN to remain neutral. I saw my role as fostering the environment, the processes, the skills and the practices to develop the program's framework successfully. When the ICANN community develops and implements policy, everyone gets a say. And the close cooperation among the community, staff, and board was particularly beneficial in the development of the applicant guidebook. This careful and extensive consultative process, especially on detailed matters of such consequence, takes time; but the result reflects a well-considered community consensus. We have reached the end of the policy and implementation planning phases of new gTLDs. Now the real hard work begins: Program launch and execution. Application processing will proceed according to our policies, the applicant guidebook, and ICANN's bylaws. The ultimate decision, following staff processes and independent panel findings comes when the board chooses whether or not to delegate a string into the root. We have an obligation to represent the global public interest in every aspect of this policy development, implementation, and execution. But each of these phases is distinctly different. And ICANN and this community must acknowledge that, once a decision is made to move forward with this implementation, if it occurs today, one chapter has closed and another begins. The open-door process of private IDN and other parties promoting specific outcomes, which contributed so richly to the policy development process, must now come to a close. Application processing must be neutral and objective and be seen as such with new and clean lines of separation among community, applicants, board, and staff on all issues related to applications. As applications are evaluated, we must maintain the integrity and transparency of the process so that all stakeholders can have confidence in this program. ICANN has clear confidentiality policies. And, under my leadership, we will continue to enforce them. I think we can all feel proud of this community's achievements in developing this incredible innovation and in bringing this innovation and this issue to a conclusion. Huge technical and political challenges have been overcome through inclusion, cooperation, diplomacy, compromise, and a lot of hard work by many, many individuals, a lot of them in this room. We thank you. No one ever thought it would take this long. But the commitment -- and some might even say extreme endurance -- needed to bring so many conflicting interests into balance to produce a credible and well- grounded program has never wavered. It reflects the very best of the multistakeholder model and this community at work. Internationalized Domain Names make it possible to access the Internet in scripts other than Latin-based characters. And their successful adoption has been one of ICANN community's greatest successes. The new gTLD program will enable additional IDNs. One pending issue is the potential delegation of variant top-level domains, some scripts -- Chinese, for example -- exist in multiple forms with several ways to represent the same concept. IDN variants would allow their use at the top level. On Saturday the community started work on case studies of variants in Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek, and Latin. These community-led teams plan to finish their report to the board by the end of this year. You may recall that, at the Silicon Valley meeting, I called for the widest possible range of voices to respond to the U.S. Department of Commerce's notice of inquiry on the IANA functions, no matter what your view. In keeping with the multistakeholder model, it's important that everybody be heard. It was wonderful to see so many people, organizations, and countries coming forward. More than 80 organizations and individuals offered their views on these important issues. The comments indicate strong percent, over 80% for ICANN's performance of the IANA functions and for keeping those functions together. The call for greater transparency and greater multistakeholder involvement in and oversight of the IANA functions was also strongly supported. Further evidence of support comes from the IETF, the Internet Architecture Board, the number resource organization. At their request we have begun discussions about ICANN managing and operating the single global trust anchor for Internet number resource certification. We applaud their important efforts. As many of you are no doubt aware, the Department of Commerce has asked for additional comment on enhancing the IANA functions. This further notice of inquiry seeks input on more detailed proposed changes to the IANA contract. Again, I urge all of you and everyone in the community, each one of you, to please submit your views, no matter what they are, on how you think IANA function should evolve in this component of the Internet. Again, I urge you to join us in engaging in the dialogue. It's imperative that the performance of the IANA functions receives the support of the global Internet community. And we thank the NTIA for providing the community with multiple opportunities to provide open and transparent input. ICANN continues to implement the recommendations on the accountability and transparency review team. We created a team of executives to focus on this area to ensure that adequate resources were dedicated and that the work got done. We have proposed that all 27 recommendations, all 27, be adopted. The board must take action by the end of June and allocate the necessary resources. We have been conducting the analysis, listening to the community input, and developing implementation plans for board consideration. Many operational improvements have already been implemented, as you have seen. ICANN has a strong foundation of accountability and transparency-related achievements, and we will continue to build upon this. The Internet has tremendous capacity to improve lives through greater economic growth, as we discussed. But its capacity for good also has a shadow: The capacity for bad and harm. The new gTLD program includes many new protections for rights holders and measures to mitigate malicious conduct. But the work does not stop there. The GNSO is reviewing concrete recommendations to address domain name registration abuse in gTLDs including cybersquatting, malicious use of domain names, fake renewal notices, uniformity of contracts and WHOIS access problems, among other issues. The community is developing a discussion paper on non-binding best practices to help registrars and registries address these matters. And a workshop is being held here in Singapore. WHOIS data includes registered domain names, registrant contracts, and other critical information. The GNSO Council is working with ICANN's policy staff to conduct WHOIS studies to provide a more factual data-driven foundation for future policy making. One is reviewing previous GNSO WHOIS policy issues and current and potential technical requirements. A strong WHOIS database is a priority as ICANN increases its collaboration and engagement with law enforcement. Law enforcement has a key role to play in our multistakeholder community. And INTERPOL is an important international leader in this field. I was privileged to visit INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon, France, last month where I met with Secretary-General Ron Noble to explore avenues for closer collaboration on Internet security. This was the first high-level meeting between ICANN and INTERPOL. We were pleased to learn of their interest in joining the GAC as an observer. The ICANN community is also part of a wide- ranging discussion on the registrar accreditation agreement to better address the concerns of security and law enforcement communities, enhance protections for registrants, and provide better compliance tools. I hope that more progress on these matters can be made this week. This meeting will also bring together a broad spectrum of community experts on DNS security and stability, a full day working session on the AOC SSR review team, workshops on the DNSSEC implementation, and technical sessions with the ccTLD community. As always, ICANN continues to face a massive global agenda. We must have the leadership, professional skills, and experience to meet these increasing demands. And, while we have made solid progress, the challenges continue to grow. And we must redouble our efforts. These past two years have been a period of significant transition for ICANN's staff. Many changes have been made to ensure that we continue to serve this community and the public interest to the highest professional standards. I was explicitly given this challenge when I was hired. Our need for different leadership and processes does not diminish the enormous contributions of previous staff members, who have given so much to this organization and community, many of whom have moved on to other organizations where they continue to thrive and contribute to the ICANN community from a different perspective. Together we have a true success story to tell. We are building a world-class organization. We have upgraded policy development support, created a communications department, enhanced IANA processing and enhanced its resiliency. And we strengthened the security team and also contractual compliance. The changes to date have also produced a mature and cohesive senior management team that functions at a very high level of quality, productivity, and teamwork and continues to grow in its scope and abilities. Simply put, we have a great executive management team. We continue to bring in many individuals with diverse international backgrounds. This helps to globalize our organization and extend our language skills to address more communities. We're also building new tools our our staff can do their jobs more effectively. A new financial system, the TLD processing -- application processing system, and a new and more effective Internet that replace he previous outdated systems. All of this has been achieved while keeping turnover well below industry norms. A normal rate of turnover in the high tech and nonprofit sector, as you know because many of you function in it, is 20 to 25% a year. Despite material upgrades in numerous key positions, ICANN's turnover in 2010 was only 11.62%. 11.62. And in 2011, overall ICANN turnover is tracking at an annualized rate under 13%. Still below average. But it is important to note that turnover is likely if not certain to increase if new gTLDs are approved today. We will be substantially augmenting and improving the new gTLD program office. And we could see a rise in departures as our highly qualified staff are recruited by other organizations, including some in this room, for their unique experience in this emerging area. This would be a solid endorsement of our staff. Not unexpectedly, the first such resignation has already occurred. I am pleased to hear the community begin discussions on whether ICANN ethics policies need to be strengthened. The past two years have been a tremendously rewarding period in my professional life. What we have all achieved together in only two years is truly remarkable. If new gTLDs are approved, it will be our fourth major achievement of global significance since my arrival just two years ago. Together we completed the Affirmation of Commitments. We then completed IDNs and the fast-track program not long after that. And then DNSSEC was successfully launched last year and has now been rolled out around the world. Everyone in this community can be proud of these accomplishments, on time and in a high-quality manner. And of course we have seen a significant strength of the multistakeholder model through enhanced relationships around the world. We did all of this while ensuring 100 percent accuracy in IANA delegations and redelegations, and maintaining the stability of the Internet's root, which is job number one. But our work is not done. I will not stand here and pretend that any of this has been easy. It has not been easy. Or that there have not been naysayers. There are. I am proud to have led this organization through such a productive period under such enormous pressures and change. Peter Dengate Thrush and I are very different people. We have different talents, different work styles, different backgrounds and interests. But together, we forge an extremely productive relationship that has always been focused on performance, delivering quality and lifting this organization. Peter sharpened the focus on the board and I did it with the staff. We have worked closely together on countless occasions to ensure that the public interest is always well served. The power and the stability of this relationship will be gone on Friday as Peter completes his term as chair of the board quite successfully. It has been a great platform for board, staff, and community success. And, Peter, I'm thankful to you for everything you have contributed. I look forward to building that kind of relationship with the new chair and vice chair. Today we face a fateful decision for ICANN. Our reputation and the future of the multistakeholder ecosystem depend on how well we respond. And I'm confident that the new board will rise to this challenge. The new gTLD program will be a crucial test of our ability to execute and stay focused on what matters, not on the noise that can distract us all. We are dedicated to delivering this program, and all of our responsibilities to the highest possible standard, and we will. I would like to thank ICANN's incredibly dedicated staff who have worked so hard and with such professionalism to bring this moment. The new gTLD program may be ICANN's most important achievement yet. For the community, the board, and the staff, for everyone who has worked so hard to make this happen, this is an historic moment, the moment that we together can and will make history. Thank you very much. [ Applause ] >>MR. ROD BECKSTROM: This closes the morning session, and we will meet again this room at 11:00 a.m, in about 50 minutes, for the ICANN board meeting where we will consider certain issues, including new gTLDs. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget that this evening we have a reception in this very room, and it's a farewell and thank you to our chairman. So let's make sure we all return this evening. Thank you.