ICANN, CTO, Nominet and PIR To Host First Commonwealth DNS Forum

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), Nominet and Public Interest Registry will host the first Commonwealth Domain Name System forum .

The Forum will be held in London on 19-20 June,2014.

You can read the press release after the jump :

“The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the UK domain name registry Nominet and Public Interest Registry, operators of the .ORG domain will jointly host the first Commonwealth Domain Name System forum in London on 19 – 20 June 2014.

Named Commonwealth DNS Forum 2014, the event is designed to help the stakeholders from across the Commonwealth to examine:

· the economic potential of the domain name industry

· governance policy options for the cyberspace

· issues surrounding local content generation and utilisation

· opportunities for investment and innovation

· the social impact of generic top level domains

· opportunities for and impact upon civil society, and

· the role of multi-stakeholder partnerships to develop public policy.

“This event will contribute to ICANN’s global programme to diversify its Community through a multi-stakeholder approach. The Commonwealth represents a cross section of the global ICT community contributing a great deal to the public policy debate. We hope this event will be able to marshal that thinking for the greater good of the DNS community” said Nigel Hickson, ICANN’s Vice-President, Stakeholder Engagement, Europe.

Professor Tim Unwin, the Secretary-General of the CTO said: “The CTO is delighted to be a partner of this event which, for the first time, will bring an important Commonwealth perspective to a consultation on the domain name system. It will be another step in the CTO’s efforts to mobilise the strengths of the Commonwealth to ensure Cyberspace delivers the socio-economic benefits it is capable of.”

Nominet’s Chief Executive Officer, Lesley Cowley OBE, added: “We’re very pleased to be supporting this important event. There is a lot of interesting activity taking place across the Commonwealth which is helping to unlock the full potential of the Internet. This includes improving cyber security, increasing access, and work with local communities and businesses, as well as developments in the DNS market. We hope that the Commonwealth DNS Forum will allow us to share this wealth of practical experience, helping us all to learn from each other.”

“For more than a decade, Public Interest Registry has served as an advocate for collaboration, safety and security on the Internet. As the long-standing operator of the .ORG domain and operator of the soon-to-be-launched .NGO and .ONG domains for the global non-governmental organisation community, we have unique insight into the issues surrounding the domain industry. We look forward to bringing together stakeholders from across the Commonwealth at this event to help them prepare for imminent changes to the Internet landscape and to foster discussion around the power of the domain name system,” said Brian Cute, Chief Executive Officer of Public Interest Registry.

The event will be opened by Kamalesh Sharma, Commonwealth Secretary-General, and will be attended by over 150 participants from across the Commonwealth with a speaker faculty drawn from public sector, industry and civil society.”