Tag Archives: ICANN63

Opinion

ICANN Barcelona Wrap Up

ICANN is 20 years old, but what is ICANN?

Simply put ICANN is the policy making body for gTLD domains and IP numbers. They hold week long conferences three times a year to engage with all internet stakeholders, from representatives of government to non-commercial internet organisations to private individuals.

2020Media’s Management team attended the recent ICANN meeting in Barcelona, Spain. We present a short review of our experiences.

Hot Topics

The most talked about issue that ICANN is dealing with at the moment is the WHOIS system. This used to be a public database where all the contact details for domain name owners was published. As you may expect it was used by spammers and malware pushers as a rich source of data. Thanks to the EU bringing in GDPR, all this personal data is now hidden from public view, and only available to law enforcement and other similar officials. A replacement system is also being discussed but has been bogged down for years.

Of course not everyone is happy with how these changes have been implemented and what will be available in the future – “Civil society groups blast ICANN Org’s push for a “Unified Access Model””

 ICANN 63 Barcelona By the Numbers

ICANN 63 by the numbers

 

Domain Names

Internet Governance Meeting

In a month’s time, our management team will be heading to Barcelona in Spain to take part in the 63rd ICANN meeting from 20–25 October.

This should be a policy focused event, as this meeting includes a ‘High-Level Government Meeting (HLGM)’ section, which takes place every two years in the current ICANN schedule.

HLGMs reinforce the critical role that governments play in providing advice to the ICANN Board on public policy relating to the secure and stable functioning of the Domain Name System. They also give participants an opportunity to discuss at a very senior level the current public policy issues and challenges at ICANN.

We’ll also be meeting with colleagues from around the world who work primarily in the internet governance, domain name and DNS space.

As always, ICANN meetings are free to anyone with an interest, including invididuals, so if you are remotely interested in the inner workings of the internet, they provide a rare unfettered glimpse for anyone who wants to learn more. Join us if you can, or watch this blog for our post-meeting analysis and report.