Consultations should include organizations key to the Internet’s success as a platform for global economic growth and social progress
PARIS – 23 May 2011 – In advance of the upcoming meeting of the G8 governments, a worldwide coalition of Internet organizations, including the Number Resource Organization, the Internet Society, the Internet Society France Chapter, ICANN, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), today stated that they would welcome the opportunity to provide input to discussions on Internet-related issues. The perspectives of organizations at the heart of the development, management and operation of the global Internet are essential for informed policy making.
The same organizations currently provide valuable expertise, input and experience for other intergovernmental forums, including through the OECD’s Internet Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC). The organizations also recalled the commitment made by governments during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) at the Heads of State level to engage in multistakeholder cooperation, and expressed their hope that future G8 meetings on the Internet will be prepared in the spirit of the WSIS Tunis Agenda—through an open and inclusive process, and with the participation of all stakeholders.
Raúl Echeberría, Chair of the Number Resource Organization (NRO) – comprised of the world’s five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) – commented, “With the exhaustion of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority’s (IANA) pool of available IPv4 addresses in February 2011, it is now more vital than ever that the G8 governments and all other stakeholders prioritize the deployment of IPv6 to ensure the continued growth and development of the Internet. To increase industry awareness, governments should insist that all Internet-related products and services that they purchase, including hardware, software, connectivity, consulting and training services, are IPv6 ready.”
Lynn St.Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society said, “Policies that support the continued development of an open Internet are best developed through open and inclusive processes. This has been crucial to the global Internet’s growth and evolution as a platform for economic development and innovation. With the aim of strengthening their policy discussions, we strongly encourage G8 governments to include input from all stakeholders.
“As they gather this week in France, we encourage the G8 governments to seek the widest possible application of the multistakeholder approach to their discussions, in accord with the commitments previously made by the governments during the WSIS,” Gérard Dantec, President of the Internet Society France Chapter. “Just as the Internet Society and Internet Society Chapters are strengthened by participation by civil society, the technical community and others, broad engagement improves discussions around, and approaches to addressing, Internet issues.”
“Nothing validates the multistakeholder model more than the on-going successful global expansion and vital importance of the Internet,” said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). “The model can best be summed up by one word – inclusion. Voices from every corner of the globe – from global governments to private sector interests to individual Internet users – must all be heard.”
“W3C’s collaborative and multi-stakeholder approach to creating an enhanced Open Web Platform is stimulating even more industries to choose the web as the platform of choice for the delivery of services and the development of rich applications – such as the mobile, television, publishing, and advertising industries.” said Dr. Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. “Web standards continue to ensure innovation and economic opportunities for businesses and consumers.”
A multistakeholder approach has helped to encourage the global Internet’s tremendous growth and is key to its continued development as a platform for innovation and economic progress in the developed and developing world. Without the full involvement of the organizations charged with the development, management and operation of the Internet, the future stability, growth and development of the Internet could be compromised. The same approach has proven to be the most effective when it comes to Internet policy development. Organizations representing civil society can also provide crucial guidance about to ensure the Internet supports social progress.
The ‘Internet Ecosystem’ of organizations and communities that guide the operation and development of the technologies and infrastructure that comprise the global Internet are currently leading the way on the deployment of technologies that will ensure the Internet continues to be a platform for innovation, economic development and social progress. These technologies include DNSSEC, which provides shrink-wrap packaging for domain names to ensure Internet users reach their intended destination, IPv6, the next generation of Internet protocol that provides enough new Internet addresses to ensure the 4 billion people yet to come online are able to fully participate in the global Internet, and HTML5, which defines the fifth major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web.
About ICANN
ICANN’s mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer – a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers. ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.
About the Internet Society
The Internet Society is the world’s trusted independent source of leadership for Internet policy, technology standards and future development. Based on its principled vision and substantial technological foundation, the Internet Society works with its members and Chapters around the world to promote the continued evolution and growth of the open Internet through dialogue among companies, governments, and other organisations around the world. For more information, see: http://www.internetsociety.org
About the Number Resource Organization (NRO)
The Number Resource Organization (NRO) is the coordinating body for the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) – AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and the RIPE NCC – that manage the distribution of Internet number resources, including IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and Autonomous System (AS) Numbers. Each RIR consists of the Internet community in its own region.
The NRO exists to protect the unallocated Number Resource pool, to promote and protect the bottom-up policy development process, and to act as a focal point for Internet community input into the RIR system.
About the World Wide Web Consortium
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the Web. Over 325 organizations are Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan, and has additional Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org.
Contacts
ICANN
Brad White
brad.white@icann.org
+1 202 570 7118
Internet Society
Greg Wood
wood@isoc.org
+1-703-625-3917
NRO
Lucie Smith, Racepoint Group UK
Tel: +44 (0) 208 811 2142
Email: lucie.smith@racepointgroup.co.uk
W3C
Contact Americas, Australia —
Ian Jacobs, <ij@w3.org>, +1.718.260.9447
Contact Europe, Africa and the Middle East —
Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33 6 76 86 33 41
Last modified on 27/10/2015