ICANN participation

Chatroom: http://icann.na3.acrobat.com/openingsession/

What it is | The Opening General Session of the At-Large Summit is the first meeting of representatives of the worldwide At-Large community participating in ICANN.

Elements of the session include:

• An opening keynote address by Alejandro Pisanty, former Director, ICANN Board;
• Opening addresses from ICANN Board Chair, Peter Dengate-Thrush, and ICAN President and CEO, Paul Twomey;
• An overview of the various ICANN Departments, and ICANN’s Advisory Committees and Supporting Organisations;
• Expert panel discussions with Q&A on IDNs, DNSSec, the IPv4-IPv6 transition, and last but not least Transparency and Accountability in ICANN.

Why it is important | This opening Session will be a unique event in which representatives of the worldwide At-Large community are physically assembled to work on user issues as a global community.

Who should attend? | All At-Large Summit delegates, anyone interested in At-Large or the issues being discussed from the perspective of an Internet end user.

Interpretation | The session will be simultaneously interpreted into English, French, and Spanish

Remote Participation Options |

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

Instructions on how to participate remotely may be found at this URL: https://st.icann.org/alac-docs/index.cgi?Remote%20Participation%20in%20Summit%20General%20Sessions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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