34th ICANN Conference Welcome Ceremony Mexico City, Mexico 02 March 2009 >> Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. Our program is about to begin. Again, if you would be so kind as to take your seats, our program is about to begin. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome chairman, board of directors ICANN, Peter Dengate Thrush. [Applause] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to give you all a warm welcome to the international public meeting of ICANN. This is meeting no. 34. And it is being held in Mexico City. On behalf of the ICANN community, I would like to express my most sincere appreciation to the organizers of this event. 30 years have gone by since the last time I visited Mexico. Back then, I was the captain of the volleyball team of the New Zealand University, and we arrived at this city to compete for the student Olympics that were taking place at the same site where, in 1968, the Olympic games had been held. [Applause] It is a pleasure to be back in this city. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our 34th international public meeting. That simple sentences, those three words "international public meeting," say so much about ICANN and why we're here today. I'm going to not only say why I think that, but I'm going to work backwards as good lawyers do through that statement. Let's begin with the concept of meeting. We're all here in this room because that is the ICANN way. The decisions that ICANN make do not come from on high. They are not made by a small group that says "this is what must happen with the Internet." ICANN's decisions are made, these decisions that inform and shape the way the Internet operates, are made in and because of meetings just like this one, where stakeholders just like you come together to inform the discussions, to share insights and experiences, to shape the future of the Internet. Public. These discussions are held and these decisions are made in an open and transparent process. If you're interested, you're welcome to come and watch. And participate. And like some of you, raise a little hell. That public spirit goes well beyond the words and ideas we share over the next few days. It's the very heart of everything that we do at ICANN. Our reporting process lays out everything for people to see and to hear. Indeed, you can find on our Web site MP3 recordings of meetings that happened as far back as 2003. Such as the record of transparency the organization has built and is committed to. The ideas on how we proceed are not just rubber-stamped by our on board. They go out in draft form. They are discussed. They're analyzed by the wider community. They are developed, redrafted, and developed further. They're shaped to represent the will of the wider Internet community. That's what's happening now, for example, with the new gTLD consultation. And that wider concept of consultation with the community takes us to the first word in that sentence, "International." The discussions and ideas come not just from a single corner of our vast globe or from a single culture. They come from literally everywhere. They come from business, from civil society, from the technical community, from governments, and from Internet interest groups. They come from Africa, from north and South America, from Asia, from the Middle East, from Europe and even extraordinarily from New Zealand. The work the international ICANN community is going to do over the coming days here in Mexico will happen in public. We'll be talking about the fast track Friday and ccTLDs so in our outreach to our nations of the world, we have heard back so far from 31 countries who have indicated that they are interested in participating in our fast track process. Together, they represent a total of 15 different languages. And of course many more scripts. They represent the thin edge of the wedge in one of the biggest changes in the history of the Internet. We'll be talking about the broader part of that same wedge, the technical and policy work being done to make characters from the languages of the world available for new generic top-level domains. Imagine what these new IDN initiatives will accomplish. It will provide people with one of the most powerful tools available: Free choice. People who want to launch a new top-level domain will be able to launch them in characters resembling their national language that they are familiar with and use every day. Consumers will have the choice of typing in a Web address with characters they use and are familiar with every day. This global program will help make the Internet more local, more a part of daily life in communities across the globe. I want to mention another feature of ICANN's transparency and accountability, and I want to draw attention just briefly to the function that we have of an ombudsman. ICANN has an ombudsman, an independent, Frank, fearless officer, who does not report to the board, who is available to deal with complaints. If anybody feels that any decision of the board prejudices them or has been made improperly, there is a complaints process to the ombudsman and the ombudsman is here available for you at business level 2. Something else we're going to be talking about: New generic top- level domains. People are talking about whole new business ideas based on gTLDs and I've had the privilege here in Mexico already of meeting people, promoting brand-new businesses that have been set up in the past few months, all really to take advantage to serve the new gTLD community. Others are looking at branding opportunities. Communities and cities and regions are talking about applying for their extensions. On the other hand, we have heard very clearly the concerns that people, especially the business community, has about some aspects of this program. We are committed not to opening up the application process until we have addressed these concerns. I, and I know my fellow board members, completely understand and want to respect the rights of trademark holders. The first public comment period on the draft application guidebook closed back in January, after 75 days of public comment. We received more than 300 comments from 24 different countries, and thousands of businesses, represented by trade organizations. The comments came from individuals, organizations, representing intellectual property interests, brand owners, business owners, ICANN- supporting organizations, domain name industry players, and governments. And again, I want to thank, as I did last night, members of the business stream. We've set up a new stream at ICANN meetings to improve our connections with the business community, and we've already had a positive early exchange of views looking at improving issues such as remote participation and security. So I particularly want to extend that welcome to the business community. There were literally thousands of voices, though, shaping the next wave of innovation on the Internet. All the comments that we've heard have been carefully read and a very detailed analysis produced that demonstrates how comments affected the second draft. The second draft guidebook is currently out for yet another period of public comment. We've not yet got agreement on all of the solutions, but we are committed to achieving that. We are listening. Carefully. Then acting. And that means that the process will not be opened now until December this year, at the earliest. I want to acknowledge also another very special ICANN milestone. The hosting at this meeting of an at-large summit. Over 90 at-large structures, representing individual Internet users from different countries have been brought by the board -- by ICANN to attend the Mexico meeting. They've had a summit to discuss their own views, and to learn engagement with the rest of the ICANN community. They are all very welcome. We want everyone here to take part in the new gTLD discussion. That's why we have a dedicated new gTLD forum later today, a second general public forum on Thursday, and we've launched the online question box. And our director of public participation will be taking you through how to use some of these facilities while you're here. But let me tell you that the tool will allow people who are not in the room, or those of you who are in the room but prefer not to come to the microphone and speak, we want to make it easy for people to ask questions. That is the ICANN way. International. Public. Meeting. Discussions we've had week are going to build on what's gone before, so I can't tell you what ideas will arise. I can't tell you how the ideas will change the course of the Internet. What I can tell you is this: Your ideas will change the course of the Internet. And they will help us with the goal that each of us in this room shares: A single global, interoperable Internet that connects the citizens of the globe, coordinated, not controlled. So it's with great pleasure that I declare the 34th meeting of ICANN open. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you for that. Ladies and gentlemen, it now gives me great pleasure to welcome Ms. Gabriela Hernandez as our keynote speaker this morning. She is the new Vice Minister of Communications of Mexico. She holds the highest responsibility as the head of the policy-making body of the telecommunication and information sectors in Mexico. She was appointed by President Felipe Calderón last month. She was previously general director of telecommunications policy at the ministry since 2007, and holds a long-standing career in the Mexican public sector at the Ministry of Commerce and also in consumer protection matters. Her original training is as a lawyer. And she recently included in her portfolio a new department called "coordination for the Information Society and knowledge." It's an honor to have her at this opening ceremony and minister, I invite you to address a few words to our audience. Thank you very much. [Applause] >>VICE MINISTER HERNANDEZ: Thank you very much, and good morning. On behalf of the Mexican government, I would like to welcome you all to this 34th meeting of the Internet corporation for assigned names and numbers, ICANN. I'd like to thank the organizers, AMIPCI, NIC Mexico and Internet Society as well as all of the national and international sponsors, for making this very relevant event take place in our country. Welcome. Communications, telecommunications, and in particular, information technologies have a positive impact in productivity, in competitiveness and of course in the living conditions of our population. The Mexican government is convinced that providing access to the whole population, to the knowledge society, is a way of improving our population's opportunities to improve their well-being. The gap is no longer between those who have more or less. The most relevant difference nowadays is that of knowledge. Thus, it is necessary for all Mexicans to be able to connect to the information highway. It is only this way that they will be able to access opportunities without distinction to all the population. We have companies that make up this company -- this industry. We have public employees. And nongovernmental organizations. We'd like to invite them to join the efforts of the Mexican government, to reduce the digital gap that separates Mexicans as well as the gap that exists among nations. President Felipe Calderón has stated in various occasions that achieving an absolutely communicated Mexico is a necessary condition to compete and to win in a globalized world. Thus, from his administration we are promoting the telecommunications sector. A communicated country will not only be a more competitive country but also a more fair, prosperous, and more united country. To be at the level of those countries with which Mexico competes, the federal government is working on various fronts in order to promote the different areas and to promote this administration. Competition, convergence. In order to promote competition, we need to give access to new competitors so that consumers have better options that will enable them to access telecommunications services. Especially wide band. This is why the telecommunications ministry is working in order to break away with the inertias that have delayed the growth of our infrastructure in telecommunications, the entry of new companies and the development of new business opportunities, be it through innovative services or with the problems at the entry. There are different public policies that the government is promoting in order to stimulate the development of the sector, such as the social coverage programs and rural telephony programs, with the aim of providing telephone, fixed and mobile telephone services, and access to Internet as well as to information technologies that those populations that are isolated, not only geographically speaking when you also technologically speaking. We believe that in order to all Mexicans to live better, they have to have access to Internet and to telecommunications services: We are working on that. Plus, investment in technology is a priority element for this administration. This is why we are developing an alternate network for interconnection through the federal commission of electricity, and through the introduction of -- in the highway network that could later be used to incorporate the use of dark fiber. The purpose is that more Mexicans will have access to broadband services and to the benefits that it entails. Our program promotes convergence. It opens the possibility for operators to provide a wide range of telecommunications services without more restrictions of those of the technologies progress. This is why we are promoting the development of a public network that will provide access to these technologies from all the points of contact of the government with the population, and by the year 2012 we hope that they will be able to connect more than 30 million Mexicans from over 200,000 points, or the program of digital cities that promotes the intensive adoption of information technologies and communication technologies for the creation of an economic and social value. Our President states that it is necessary for all Mexicans to be able to connect to the same information highway that we all have the same opportunity to access information, that we all have the same education technological and knowledge instruments that will enable us to have equal opportunities. In this administration, we definitely believe in this. Telecommunications are a vehicle to raise the quality of life of Mexicans. Our task as authorities is to formulate the policies that will enable Mexicans to have the services that they require. So that they can choose their providers and have access to better services and rates. We know that we still have a long way to go. We are very much behind, compared to other countries, with regards to telecommunications coverage or to it the number of companies that have the Internet. This rate is still very low. And the number of Internet users is still very low in our country. Thus, it is a challenge and we need to raise this number of users. We also are aware and need to resolve the very high concentration, both of technological capital as well as of human resources that are trained in some regions or cities in the country. This does not allow us to expand the benefits of information and telecommunications to more inhabitants all over Mexico. In the last few weeks, at the ministry we have taken decisive steps in order to issue guarantees for investment and to expand competition among companies in this sector. With actions such as the consolidation of local services, the authorization of commercial companies, also granting concession in the bid for the radio electrical spectrum, these are measures that will help us enter this -- or improve this sector. We will also be promoting the lowering of costs among operators, among companies, the costs for users. All these measures will bring about better rates and a better service supply for users. They will improve the possibilities of Mexicans to access telecommunications, and thus, to information technologies. We are convinced that our task as a government is to transform the government, the country long term, to make now decisions that will have an impact for the next -- or for the future generations of Mexicans. In order to achieve these goals that we have set as a government, it is necessary to share the responsibility with the companies in the sector, with other governments, with the users, technicians, with all the parties that make it possible for the knowledge society to become a reality for many of us. Especially for the 280,000 domains that are registered. Yesterday at ICANN -- yesterday the over 30 million Mexican users of Internet. The task that you will be undertaking these days will be very important for the functioning of the Internet as we now know it. We know that finding a -- reaching a consensus is the basis for this work. Thus, we will carefully follow the conclusions that you reach with regards to the neutrality of the network, the regulations and the options for new network domains, the use of the various characters for the domain names and the new Internet Protocol. All this in order to continue making it possible for the world to become connected and share things through this network. You are facing a huge challenge this week, and we are certain that you will be very successful. We are pleased to have you in this city, in this country. Good works. Congratulations. And welcome. [Applause] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Minister, thank you very much. I now call upon the ICANN CEO and President, Dr. Paul Twomey now to thank you in reply. Paul? >>PAUL TWOMEY: Vice Minister, thank you. While I trip on the chair. Can I say thank you very much for what was an interesting, very interesting, speech. You've got a very energetic and transforming set of policies for your government's following, and we can all find that very inspiring. Many of us here have been friends of Mexico for a long time and it's fascinating to see the growth of telecommunications and Internet connectivity and sophistication in Mexico. And again, your administration continues to drive that forward. I was listening to your speech and I thought there were a number of things that you said that this community really would echo very strongly for this community. Your emphasis upon the importance of knowledge for the Mexican economy and the importance of access. The Internet -- the ICANN community is focused on one part of the Internet. It's focused on that -- not on the transit layer, not on the pipes, nor is it really focused on the application layer, but on the addressing and routing and the protocols that actually help all the various devices connect as one single interoperable Internet. And I think at the heart of that is a very deeply-felt commitment to openness of access. A very deeply-felt commitment that when every new person in Mexico joins the Internet, that they will have access to content and to people all through the network. That it's not a set of national networks but it is this single network in which each device helps connect people together. And this community -- and there's some 20,000 people around the world who are actually part of this community -- are very committed to ensuring that the single global interoperable Internet serves the citizens in Mexico and others as they become connected. That they can actually access all parts of the network. Competition, you mentioned, is an important part of your -- of your agenda, and I think we also think that competition and choice is very important. And as you've pointed out, one of the key topics we're discussing this week is on providing more competition and choice, particularly in the generic top-level domains, and that's not an easy task as you often know with competition issues, and we're still working through many issues. But that's an important issue for us as well. And I suppose finally I would say you mentioned convergence. At the heart of convergence really is the use of the Internet Protocol. And so the addressing community, which is an important part of ICANN, is also very committed to ensuring a globally coordinated mechanism for the allocation of Internet protocols. Through the regional Internet registries, but the policies that they help set come to us for consideration and endorsement to specifically ensure in a fair, global allocations of Internet Protocol Version 4 and as you indicated, the new -- 12-year-old Internet protocol Version 6, which is a very important new identifier which would allow much greater use of Internet Protocol to connect all sorts of devices and all sorts of things to the network. So I think in some respects, the things that are on your agenda in our narrow remit, which is the unique identifier system of the Internet, it echoed. When I listened to what you said, it really echoed, because there are key things that you are concerned about that I think we're also concerned about in our own community. I'd like to say, finally, thank you for your speech and opening. We very much appreciate it. Thank you to the government of Mexico and to the Mexican Internet community for helping to host and offering the hospitality to our community here. We, I think, love being in Mexico City, and we wish you every best wish and success. [Applause] >> Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome to the stage general manager of public participation, Kieren McCarthy. [Applause] >>KIEREN McCARTHY: Hello. Yes. So I'm here to tell you about how to participate within this meeting. My name is Kieren McCarthy and I'm the general manager of public participation, so feel free to bother me if you see me walking around and you want to find out how to do things, which meetings to go to, how to interact more. The main way of finding out what's going on is we have a Mexico City Web site, which is at mex.icann.org. As you can see from the front page, we have the schedule. We have pretty buttons, so we have the schedule. Click that, you'll find the schedule. You'll have information about Mexico City. You have general information, emergency numbers and so on. You have the public forum which I'll get back to later. That's to enable you to, as Peter was saying earlier, ask a question in the public forum, also find out what's going on in the public forum. Video. We're going to be uploading videos. We have the domain.info producing videos. They'll be taking videos. We'll stick that up as the meeting goes on, to find out what happens. And then the maps, the crucial maps, to find out where you are. So also on that, if you want to know any given time what's going on, if you scroll down, you can see here -- there we are -- there's the break coming up, which is -- which it will be coming up shortly, and the president's report. You click on any of them and you go directly into the individual Web page for that meeting. You can scroll up and click on the schedule and scroll down and see there's Saturday, there's Sunday, there's Monday, and then there's the welcome ceremony where we are now. And you can see we have the audio feeds. You have the chatrooms. And so on and so forth. So if you can go back and we can have a look at the next session, which will be the applicant guidebook session, again, there's the audio feed, there's the chatrooms. If you go into each meeting room, you should be able to find anything that's going on. In particular, I'd like to draw your attention to this question box. It's very simple to fill in. If you have a question for the applicant guidebook session, just scroll down, you put in your name, your e-mail, say what it's about, you type in your question and hit "submit" and that will go through to ICANN staff who will then, if we have -- well, we'll get through as many questions as we can. And we'll raise it during the session. We also have a mobile site, ICANN.Mobi, which is useful if you're walking around and you need to pick it up on your mobile phone. You can see there we have the schedule there. You also have various information, emergency telephone numbers and so on and so forth. We have an interact feature, which is a Twitter feed. For those of you sort of not aware of what Twitter is, it's a very easy way to send short messages to one another. And if you put a hash imx that will lead through to that Twitter feed and as you can see, there's quite a lot of people -- if you click on that, there's quite a lot of people interacting all the time. There's at least 20 just from this session alone. Some about the sound. Some about what the minister was saying, and so on and so forth. So if you can go back to the Mexico City site. I want to tell you all briefly as well if you look directly outside on the other side of the elevators, we have got a professional photographer. We are trying to build up a community database of photographs. It is absolutely free. We will need you to sign something to say ICANN can use the photos. We are always looking for photos of community members. It is absolutely free, and you will get high-quality photographs and we will provide you with a link after the meeting is over so you can download them and share them with your family, whatever you want to do. I would like to talk briefly about the public forum. So everyone understands what the system will be on Thursday morning, we have a microphone here at the front. It is the traditional way we do it. People can queue up, come up to the microphone and they will be able to direct the board who will be up on stage. We also will have someone at the back of the room who will be taking questions using that question box that I showed you. And those questions will be relayed to the chairman who will be moderating the session. So we will have a mix of people to ask the questions using the question box and questions from the floor, so hopefully that will work and that will please everyone. And the same will happen with the applicant guidebook session which is after this session which I know is of a lot of interest to most of you. Lastly, I would just like to flag a few meetings. There is the joint ACSO meeting this afternoon in this room, which is going to be very interesting, I should think. We are going to have a lot of members of the ACSOs having a free and open discussion, what's in front of them. We have the introduction to ICANN which will be after this session in Don Diego 3. So if this is your first time to an ICANN meeting, come along to that. We will explain very simply how ICANN works, how the meetings work, what we are discussing. So if this is your first time, please come along to that. Several board members will be holding a session on public participation on the Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. That should also be good. There is an e-crimes workshop as well I would like to draw your attention to. That's also on Wednesday in this room in the afternoon. The main thing to say is after this president's report will be the applicant guidebook session in this room. And that's it. Thank you very much. [applause] >> Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back our CEO and President, Dr. Paul Twomey. [applause] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Kieren, thank you very much for that explanation. Ladies and gentlemen, just want to make a couple of points about public participation. First, the fact that we have a manager of public participation is an early indication in the bylaws of the importance that we place on that. But more than that, there is now a board-level committee devoted to improving all aspects of public participation in ICANN's processes. And I have asked that committee to make ICANN world-class at public participation including the use of remote participation. So this matters to us. We need and value your participation. Now it is my pleasure to invite Paul to give the president's report. Paul? >>PAUL TWOMEY: Thank you, Peter. Good morning to everybody. Chairman, as we are now having the restructured meeting format, I would like to give you a report which focuses really on outlining the key things that we are discussing during this week and ensuring that all people are aware of what's being discussed and in what particular places. At least I will do so to the extent that Kieren has left me anything to talk about. He has already mentioned some of the things we will be talking about. We have a very detailed agenda for this meeting. This is one of our busiest meetings for -- if I think about it, in the last five or six years, this is going to be one of our busiest meetings. And I would like to -- there is a range on the screen there now of some of the topics. I would like to go through them in some detail just to give you some context for the discussions. The At-large Summit is a historic event for ICANN. The convening of the ALSs from across the five regions to come, to listen, to experience, to share their thoughts, to regenerate their process of giving us input is incredibly important. The role that the civil society and the user community plays at ICANN cannot be overstated. And the importance of that group be engaged in the multi-stakeholder discussions that take place this week in terms of how do we work together to develop policy and develop positions I think is very important. I would like to thank them very much for their attendance and point out this is very important. It is taking place at the Melía Hotel and some of its meetings have taken place here. As you have already mentioned, Chairman, one of the big topics we are dealing with this year is the new generic top-level domain program. We will have a set of discussions around the draft applicant guidebook, which is Version 2 of that guidebook. And those discussions will take place in this room shortly, and there is a link there on the slide to the particular arena for online discussion. This obviously is one of our very important areas. Rather than my spending a lot of time talking about the detail of where we are on the application process, we clearly are going to go through several rounds of this application guidebook as we get more feedback. I would just like to make the following general observation. I think we need to remember as a community that we have been working through introducing new gTLDs for a long time. If you would like, this is our third round of looking at new gTLDs. We have had a lot of experience at introducing this process. We are in a stage now which is the quite natural stage, I think, of our working through the details. I have very much treasured all of the dialogue, all of the feedback we've received and all of the discussions that are taking place now and all the discussions that are taking place, what to do going forward. I think it is a very, very good process. I would like -- especially people who are new to the process and who might think this is new, where did this come from or this is noisy and sounds messy, I would just like to sort of confirm for people that we have a lot of experience in introducing this and this is where we should be now in the sense -- in our process where we are now is quite appropriate in terms of the things we are putting forward. Indeed, to give you some personal sense, I have my own personal barometer or calendar of how things work at ICANN. When I was chairing the GAC, when I was first involved in new gTLDs, my daughter Eloise looked like that. My daughter Eloise now looks like that. [laughter] So to give you some sense of the time frame in which we've had this experience, I thought I would give a personal -- personal indication. So I think our history shows that success comes from patience. It comes from listening, and it comes from working together for practical and effective solutions. And I think as we go through the process this year of working through all the issues around new gTLDs, they are key points I think we need to take to heart: Patience, listening and working together for practical and effective solutions. A similar issue, or obviously a somewhat related issue, is the issue on IDN ccTLD and the fast track. The explanatory memoranda has been released. There is a draft document or responsibility document available. Development and use of IDN tables document has been released. There will be a second public comment period opening on the 18th of February on the draft implementation plan. We will do that by the 19th of February. This is another major item for discussion, and it will be an important one this week. The operating plan and budget is a very important part of how we work obviously. And the six-month cycle of developing a strategic plan and the six-month cycle at developing an operating plan and budget has now been in place for, I think, four years. I think it is now -- it needs to keep getting reviewed and keep getting discussed. But I think it is working quite smoothly. The main topics here for discussion would very much ask everybody, if they can, if they have got views to participate. If you have a got a view, if you ever start a sentence that says "ICANN should" or "ICANN should not," you need to come to the operating plan sessions because that's where you get to cast and formulate and influence those processes, and you can do it in the sessions here but very importantly online. So we are in the process of working through this to try to finalize, really work through what our operating plan and budget should be for this year. If you have a view about what ICANN should do, come and have your voice heard. This is where you influence the budget. There has been a lot of work been done over quite some time for the President's Strategy Committee on improving institutional confidence. The committee has released for information only at this meeting its recommendations. They have been released prior to the meeting. There will be an important workshop on Wednesday where they will be discussed and there will be a dialogue on those points. There will be no decisions made on the improving institutional confidence, and the documentation is not official ICANN documentation nor is it -- very importantly, it is not official board documentation. There should be no misapprehension that this is a board position even though some of the board members are on the committee. There will be opportunities for further public consultation, and there will be no decisions made on any of this material prior to the Sydney meeting. So there will be opportunities for actual decision-making in Sydney. I just wanted to reinforce that. It is available for comment now. There will be exploration of the material on Wednesday. We will be looking for a dialogue. But there will be further opportunities for public comment going forward. We had started last meeting, and I think were successful and wanted to reinforce this meeting, having the joint Supporting Organization and Advisory Committee meetings. That's an emerging part of the ICANN context. It is an emerging part of people working together, and I think it is very interesting about how to improve policy development, also expanding issues around gTLDs and IDN fast track. And the public meeting is this afternoon at 2:00. DNSsec continues to be a key topic in which we are very interested, and there will be a workshop on DNSsec on Wednesday, the 4th. And there are some recent events. ICANN has proposed we could -- has put forward a proposal as how to sign the root zone file as has VeriSign. The U.S. Department of Commerce has had a Notice of Inquiry. The SSAC has completed a DNSsec status report, and IANA has implemented the interim trust anchor repository. So we are working through that, and there will be more discussion of this on Wednesday. I will talk about quickly about some IANA functions. I would point out to members of the community, we have on the Web site a dashboard -- a dashboard button. If you were to push that dashboard button, you will get lots of operational data, realtime on the performance of the IANA functions, both for the IETF protocol work they do, for the root zone work that's done. And that is updated regularly. For me it is a very important part. It is something I look at very regularly to see how we are performing and tracking performance. I would exhort you, if you have not done so and if you have not done so recently, to go to the Web site, push on that button called the dashboard and go through all the records that have performance for various parts of the organization. There is a workshop in collaboration with the ALAC process on e- crime, which is taking place on the 4th of March, on Wednesday, 2:00. And there is some presentations there, introduction to e-crime, sizing and scoping of e-crime, case studies in criminal attacks. This is an informational session. I always make the point, our interest an organization on security and stability and resiliency is focused clearly on our role which is about the coordination of the unique identifier system. We are not the police of the Internet by any means. Kieren has mentioned the public participation committee of the board. For those of you who have got strong views or any views really about how we actually outreach to the community, how participation takes place, please come to that open board session on Wednesday between 2:00 and 5:30. Again, on IPv6, there is going to be a workshop really planning with the convergence for mobile technology and mobile networks, and that will take place at 2:00 again on Wednesday. Contractual compliance, we again released as part of our ordinary process the semiannual compliance audit report, and also there is a quarterly compliance newsletter that we would ask you to, again, ascribe to and make sure you are getting the full details of what is happening in terms of the enhanced program. We've had many new hires in 2008. I think also so far in 2008 there were ten registrar terminations that took place around compliance failure. There is a series of policy development work going on. Many of you are aware of it in the GNSO, in the ccNSO, in the SSAC. And if people want to be conscious of what those are, the GNSO is looking at GNSO improvements. It is looking at the ICANN geographical regions issue, registration abuse, the expired domain names, recovery changes, inter- registrar transfer policies and study on fast flux and cybercriminals. ccNSO is looking at the new strategic and operational planning committee, our relationships with IDN ccTLD operators and the timetable for the IDN ccTLDs. The Security and Stability Advisory Committee is looking at the impact of IDNs on WHOIS, the DNSsec status report and initiating study on combined effect of IPv6, DNSsec and IDNs on the DNS infrastructure, which is a key overarching issue of implementation of new gTLDs. So you can see there is a rich set of -- that's not a comprehensive set. There is stuff also happening in the ASO at this meeting as well. There is a rich set of policy issues underway, and it is important for people to get a sense of what are other groups are working on, what other issues are coming in other groups that you can begin to engage early with your views and thoughts. So that's, Chairman, an overview of what this week is going to be like. I wonder if I can also then move to another topic, and I would like to talk about my future as President and CEO of ICANN. I would be grateful if we could have it quiet while I go through this topic. Many of you are aware, I have been CEO and President of ICANN since 2003. Indeed, this month is the sixth year I have been President. And my term for this present contract expires in June. I have made a decision last year and conveyed to the board that I was -- it was not my intention to renew the contract another three years. Before I go to the rationale for that and explain what we are doing going forward, I would like to take the opportunity to point out all of the work of the staff who have worked with me for the last six years on helping to actually build a stronger, more successful organization. I would ask you to join me in a set of a round of applause for the staff for the key work they have done. [applause] So I have been involved with ICANN now for 12 years. In its formation, I was the chair of the GAC for four years. I have been President now for six years. And as I said, I told the board last year that it was not my intention to renew another three-year contract for a couple of reasons. Frankly, at a personal level, I would like the opportunity to do -- in my career, to have another senior leadership position in a private or international entity. And at the age of 47, it is probably a good time to think about another career change and have that opportunity. Secondly, if I were to renew for another three years, I would end up being President for ten and I just don't think we live in a time of the world where that sort of length of tenure really works. I think organizations need change. And so I didn't think it was really healthy for the organization to have a President for ten years. I didn't think it was healthy for me to be President for ten years in all sorts of ways. And so I said to the board last year, I'm not willing to renew for another three years. But we all recognized and I recognized that 2009 is an incredibly important year, and in some respects, it is a special year. We have three really major issues underway which we need to coordinate. We need to coordinate the new gTLDs, the country code issues and also looking at the conclusion of the Joint Project Agreement with the Department of Commerce. So after discussion, which has been a very fruitful, open -- and I would have to say to the board members a very best-practice-type conversation, I really appreciated it, I have agreed to stay on with ICANN until the end of 2009. The board has asked me to stay beyond my term of the 30th of June until they find a successor and then to have a period of handover and transition to the new President and CEO. The board has also asked me to continue providing leadership in managing the new gTLD, IDN ccTLD processes and the Joint Project Agreement. But let's be quite clear when the new President and CEO is appointed, he or she is the boss. During the transition period, I shall be appointed to the new position of Senior President and this plan has been developed in close collaboration and in support between the board and myself. I think working together we've built an impressive organization, unique in the international governance arena, not just in the Internet. We are operationally and financially secure. We are on the cusp of many major achievements that will change the Internet forever. Internationalized domain names and gTLDs are just two I know we are consumed with at the moment. Our policy processes are consistent and deliver a huge and complex body of work, and the management of that work involves -- actually is the case for all of us, extraordinary hours and dedication. The IANA function is close to a standard of excellence the community deserves and expects and has seen an incredible turn around in recent years of serving the needs of the Internet community. We should be enormously proud of this collective achievement. And if I look back over the last ten years, I can't believe how far the organization has come. And why? Because it's your work, your work as the community that has got us to this point. And I think we should all take great pride in what we have helped build. So the board has now commenced a search process for a new President and CEO. I will have the pleasure of your company through to the end of 2009. Indeed, I'm going to enjoy that. It is important for you to know that we will continue to work as business as usual. Our work continues and the executive leadership continues to manage this in our usual way. It is an important message. I'm wanting to make this announcement now, willing to make this announcement now because we just want to clear the decks. We have a lot of work to do this year. It is business as usual. We have got this well-managed process for handling the transition, and I'm fully committed to that being a good and successful transition to the new President and CEO. But it is business as usual, lots of things to do. So in the short-term, we have a meeting to run and that includes support -- not only people here but people who are being supported who are not here but are virtually and online. We have an extraordinary work program this year at the cutting edge of the Internet's innovation. And I look forward to working with you throughout this year on those exciting developments. [applause] >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thank you, Paul. As you say, indeed a rich set of activities this week. I just want to respond to your last topic. And to go on record as saying that it is with a certain sadness that we contemplate the conclusion of Paul's service as C.E.O. of ICANN. I knew before I became chair, of course, of your history of involvement from negotiations with Ira Magaziner and, of course, your service as the founding chair of the GAC. You and I first met at the Singapore meeting at ICANN 1 in early 1999. Since I have become Chairman of the Board, I have worked closely with Paul and have been able to observe at firsthand the extraordinary effort, time, patience, skill and science of Paul as a leader. The job also demands extraordinary stamina. Any of you if you want to have a look at Paul's schedule, I would recommend it. There will be a time though probably at the Sydney meeting for paying tribute to the work done during Paul's nearly seven years as President. But Paul is not leaving today. And this announcement, as Paul said, is simply to ensure the staff, the community and you and everybody else around that this is an orderly managed process. It is a process in which Paul and I are personally cooperating very closely and with the board. The board has set up a search committee. That committee has interviewed and engaged in international search consultancy firm. We have approved a job specification, and the process is underway. The firm is actively now searching for a new CEO and President. And I think that's going to be a difficult task, but they assure us they will have one on time, ready to take office on the 1st of July. So we will welcome our fourth CEO and President. We're all delighted as well that Paul has agreed to stay on on a contract basis until the year-end to provide that absolutely essential continuity. You have commented before you didn't get it and how nice it would have been when you started. And so in recognition of that, Paul is staying on to help with some of the major projects that we've mentioned. He's also made it very clear to me and now to you that he is committed to helping the new CEO find their feet, learn their way through the acronym soup that is ICANN and share the key relationships that Paul has developed over more than a decade of service to ICANN and the community. And as he mentioned, there will be a special title to reflect the seniority and importance that the board regards this period of service. But until then, as you say, it is business as usual. If "usual" means over eight days of more than 20-hour days, hundreds of meetings, decisions, phone calls, text messages I now have to add Twitter, debates, speeches, press conferences, policy making, the list goes on and on, if that's business as usual, let's get on with it. Ladies and gentlemen, that's the end of the opening ceremony. Invite you all to come back to the very first session, the highest order of business, new gTLDs starts in here at 11:00. Look forward to seeing you then. Thank you all very much. [applause]