Tuesday, Nov 6, 2007    Text size: 

"ICANN meetings are the ICANN model in action — bottom-up, consensus-driven discussions that help ensure the domain name system is co-ordinated rather than controlled," ICANN CEO Paul Twomey said. "This 30th meeting was one of the best — we laid out our progress on internationalized domain names and new generic top-level domains, and we charted a course forward on complex and difficult issues."

At the meeting, New Zealand lawyer Peter Dengate Thrush was unanimously elected to replace retiring Vint Cerf as the new chairman of the board.

Dengate Thrush, whose practice is in the field of civil litigation, intellectual property, competition and Internet law, has been involved in ICANN since its inception, including involvement in the early drafts of the ICANN bylaws. "I am delighted that my colleagues have placed their confidence in me for this challenging and important role," Thrush said.

Roberto Gaetano also was unanimously reelected by the board as deputy chair.

"I look forward to supporting the board and the community in this exciting period for ICANN," Gaetano said. "The Internet is constantly evolving and that means ICANN's responsibility to ensure one stable foundation is all the more important."

A stable foundation is high on ICANN's priority list and a definite need in the wake of problems such as the RegisterFly collapse.

"After nine years ICANN is well-placed to face the challenges of the future. The fact that it is so well-positioned is a tribute to Vint and of course the staff led by Paul Twomey who have taken us out of foundation mode to become the right organization to meet future challenges," Thrush said.

Resolutions adopted at the meeting include the formation of an IDN working group to explore what the process could be for developing a fast-track policy/process for introducing internationalized domain names, calling on the ICANN community to provide input on ICANN's geographic regions, and implementation analysis for new TLDs to be discussed at the ICANN board meeting in January.