ICANN Meetings

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ICANN Meetings are held three times a year in various regions around the world in compliance with the ICANN Bylaws, which mandate that the ICANN Board maintain transparency in managing the Internet and to provide opportunity for international participation and discussion regarding policy developments that impact the Domain Name System (DNS) and the global Internet community.

ICANN meetings are organized and coordinated by at least 100 volunteers from the ICANN's Supporting Organizations (SOs) and Advisory Committees (ACs). A general meeting is held annually to give newly elected members their seats. [1]

Participants

ICANN meetings are open to everyone who is interested and openly affected by the organization's activities and work. Individuals attending ICANN Meetings include:[2]

Activities

A wide range of topics regarding the many aspects of the Internet are discussed during the ICANN Meetings including the stability and security of the DNS, intellectual property issues, policies affecting the growth and development of the Internet, creation of new top level domains, and many other issues. During ICANN Meetings, workshops, open forums, and remote participation are conducted using different tools, such as live audio streaming, video, chat rooms and online question boxes.

The ICANN Meetings are free and are normally held for five days. An outline of the entire week's activities and agenda are provided in the morning of the opening day of every ICANN Meeting.

All the different constituencies hold their own meetings and sessions to discuss their concerns and issues. A day is dedicated for the internal review of the ICANN Structure and for the SO's and AC's councils to make decisions on issues raised during the meetings. Workshops are also held to provide the latest information and upcoming issues regarding the internet industry.

Annual elections of officers are also held during the meetings and reports from the different constituencies of working group are also submitted.

Meeting Schedule

The first ICANN meeting lasted only three days,[3] while more contemporary meetings have all been lasting just over a week. Monday through Friday is the busiest time of the conference, but certain meetings and working groups often begin meeting the weekend prior to the official start.[4] The schedule also features a number of specialized networking events, provided by various sponsors. These include a Welcoming Reception, a Gala Night, and the Rod Beckstrom introduced Music Night.[5]

The meetings themselves are a mix of closed and open door sessions between the stakeholder groups, constituencies, and other bodies. The meetings always conclude on Friday with an open board meeting where the week's final resolutions are discussed and voted upon, and time is made to hear from any member of the community via an open mic.

It was announced several months before ICANN 44 in Prague that the Board planned to restructure the meetings so that they ended on Thursday instead of Friday. Friday morning meetings, which have traditionally been the AC/SO committee reports, Board committee reports, and the public Board meeting, have been removed. The committee reports are instead to be published on the ICANN website, and the public Board meeting has been replaced by a one hour session following the Public Forum, during which the Board will outline what they heard during the week from their meetings with AC/SOs and identify what matters they expect to be dealing with before the next meeting. The Board will then begin the following meeting with another community session, where it outlines what has been done since the last meeting.[6] Following this announcement, the ICANN community expressed concerns over the loss of transparency that this change brings.[7]

The Annual Meeting

While ICANN holds 3 community meetings every year, the Annual Meeting is the venue designated for important voting procedures and other structural processes. According to the ICANN Bylaws it must be held within 14 months of the prior Annual Meeting. At this time, the meeting tends to be the last meeting of the year. The conclusion of the annual meeting is when new members of most bodies within ICANN take their seats, most notably the directors of the ICANN Board. The NomCom must present its nominees for the board 2 months prior to the meeting. It is also a meeting where many bodies within ICANN request full attendance from their members.[8]

Meeting Location Criteria

Since ICANN Meetings are held annually in different countries across the globe, a criteria has been set to serve as guideline to evaluate if the locations identified by the Internet governing body and/or recommended by the Internet community are suitable to accommodate the activities, participants and technical requirements of the meetings. The primary factors considered in selecting the locations for the ICANN Meetings include: costs, accessibility, convenience, visa restrictions, availability and affordability of local transportation, proximity of hotel accommodations to the venue of the meetings, excellent space and meeting facilities, installation of networks infrastructures in meeting venues, safety and security.[9]

Sponsorship

Over the years, a variety of sponsorship schemes have been used with relation to ICANN meetings. It has been noted that the initial operation and the first meetings of the organization were made possible through loans from major industry companies, such as MCI, Cisco, and others.[10][11] Currently, they have a 6 tiered sponsorship scheme, offering plans ranging in price from $7,500 to $250,000. There is also now the opportunity to spsonor individual "networking events", such as a lunch, coffee break, Music Night, etc.[12] It seems that at one time the top tier, Diamond, cost as much as $500,000;[13] though current pricing for ICANN 42 is listed at topping out at $250,000, though combining sponsorship opportunities is possible.[14]

Highly active, and reliable ICANN sponsors include Verisign, Afilias, and Neustar, and others.[15] It is common for regional corporations to step up their ICANN participation and sponsorship when ICANN's rotating meeting schedule takes them into their territory.

Full sponsorship info can be found here.

Past and Future ICANN Meetings

The first ICANN Meetings was held in Singapore on March 2-4, 1999 to comply with Article III, Section 3(b)(iii) of the organization's Bylaws. The issues discussed during the meeting include:[16]

List of ICANN Meetings

Below is the list of past and future ICANN Meetings that was held in different countries worldwide:[17]

References

  1. ↑ meetings.icann.org
  2. ↑ Participants
  3. ↑ ICAN 41 Opening Transcript
  4. ↑ ICANN 40 Schedule
  5. ↑ Dot Nxt Op-ed on Beckstrom's Resignation
  6. ↑ ICANN Wraps Up Prague Meeting on Thursday, icann.org
  7. ↑ ICANN cancels Fridays. Bad for transparency, domainincite.com
  8. ↑ ICANN Bylaws
  9. ↑ Meeting Location CRiteria
  10. ↑ MCI Cisco come to ICANN's rescue
  11. ↑ ICANN 41 Opening Transcript
  12. ↑ Meetings.ICANN.Sponsorship
  13. ↑ VeriSign gives ICANN 500k for Sponsorship
  14. ↑ Meetings.ICANN.Sponsorship
  15. ↑ Verisign Drops 150,000 on ICANN Singapore
  16. ↑ Singapore Meeting 1999
  17. ↑ Calendar of Events
Retrieved from "http://icannwiki.com/index.php/ICANN_Meetings#The_Annual_Meeting"
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