"The working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) aimed at finding a working definition for the Internet, discussed important policy issues, and the roles of the different stakeholders as well as presented models for governance," according to Mr. Charles Sha’ban, Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property’s (AGIP) regional office executive director.
Taking part in several sessions at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) 23rd Meetings in Luxembourg City, July 11-15, 2005, Mr. Sha’ban focused on several issues related to the current status of the WGIG.
"The panelists discussed several issues relating to the contents of the WGIG report, the definition of Internet governance, capacity building, a suggested forum, and the four governance and oversight models," stated Mr. Sha’ban during the ICANN Forum on the WGIG Report sponsored by the ICANN World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Working Group.
In addition, Mr. Sha’ban gave an update on the WGIG process at a meeting for the World Wide Alliance of Top Level Domain Names (wwTLDs).
"There is an urgent need to increase engagement by developing country stakeholders in all issues," Mr. Sha’ban, a WGIG member, said.
He added that there should be a focus on achieving better coordination between Internet community and intergovernmental organizations such as ITU, WTO and WIPO.
Mr. Sha’ban also delivered an update on the WSIS and WGIG process at the country-code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) meeting.
Meanwhile, the ICANN meetings saw the completion of a contract between mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd., and ICANN, formalizing the creation of the .Mobi domain for the mobile community. mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd. was formed by member companies including Hutchison 3, GSM Association, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Syniverse Technologies, TIM, Telefonica Moviles, T-Mobile, and Vodafone, with the aim of creating a registry service for the .mobi domain. This will serve as a reliable and recognizable mechanism for Internet content and services that are specifically tailored to the mobile experience.
The meeting culminated in the ICANN’s Board of Directors public voting and approval of the following items:
A resolution to accept the recommendations of the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) report on domain name hijacking and encouragement of interested parties to consider developing a set of Best Common Practices for Domain Name Protection;
The adoption of the Board Procedure for Review of Global Addressing Policies;
A Board direction to the General Counsel to complete revisions to the Conflicts of Interests Policy by August 2005;
A direction to staff to improve transparency of reports of Board meetings conducted via telephone;
Adoption of the ICANN Budget for the Fiscal Year 2005-2006.
The ICANN Board also resolved to designate the December 2005 meeting in Vancouver, Canada, as the Annual Meeting for ICANN.
Present at this meeting were members of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee, Internet country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) managers, business leaders, registrar and registry groups, non-commercial Internet users, intellectual property holders, and Internet service providers from around the world.