ICANN President Encourages Arab Involvement in Shaping the Internet’s Future
07-Mar-2013
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DUBAI - The President of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) says it is time for the Arab world to step up its involvement in determining the future of the Internet, according to the Corporation.
“The Internet is becoming far more user friendly for the Arab world,” said Fadi Chehadé. “Now it is time for Arabs to become much more engaged in the Internet’s future.”
Chehadé made the comments at the conclusion of the Arab Multi-Stakeholder Internet Governance meeting in Dubai. The meeting, hosted by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the United Arab Emirates, brought together representatives from several different Internet organizations.
“We hope to have an ICANN Middle East engagement strategy developed by May,” said Chehadé. “It is critical that the Arab world itself come to the table to help us develop that strategy. We want to hear all the Arab voices; those of the Domain Name industry, governments, businesses and even unaffiliated Internet users.”
There was general agreement at the meeting, that the Domain Name industry needs to be more fully developed in the Arab region. Chehadé said ICANN stands ready to add its support to that effort, but it is dependent on Internet leaders in the region helping the organization map the way forward.
Chehadé has been on a worldwide tour aimed at increasing global participation in ICANN’s multi-stakeholder model. On Thursday he will be hosting African Internet leaders at a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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.