Internet Community Organisations at WSIS Outline Key Factors That Will Ensure the Internet's Continuing Growth

Internet Community Organisations at World Summit Outline Key Factors That Will Ensure the Internet's Continuing Growth Geneva, Switzerland - 4th November 2005 - Many of the Internet community organisations that enable the processes for the development and administration of the Internet will host the ‘Internet Pavilion’ (stand 1323) at the ‘ICT 4 all’ exhibition at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, 15-19 November 2005.

Organisations at the ‘Internet Pavilion’ will include the Internet Society (ISOC), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Number Resource Organization (NRO), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the London Internet Exchange (LINX), the Council of European National Top level Domain Registries (CENTR) and the African ISP Association (AfrISPA).

The pavilion theme is ‘The Internet - How does it work, Who makes it work’. It will offer WSIS attendees a clear understanding of the issues involved in the successful coordination of the Internet’s technical infrastructure, including the importance of building on the proven success of the inclusive and established processes that have fostered its incredible growth.

“Coordination and collaboration between the many organisations that play a role in Internet administration and development is vital,” commented Axel Pawlik, NRO Chairman. “The industry partners hosting the ‘Internet Pavilion’ at WSIS will show how cooperation is fundamental to the stability of the Internet.”

The ‘Internet Pavilion’ will demonstrate how participating organisations represent the evolving needs of the global Internet community through an open, neutral, bottom-up, collaborative and inclusive multi-stakeholder framework. The specific roles of each organisation in Internet administration and coordination will be highlighted.

“This is a crucial time for all those with an interest in the future of the Internet,” explained Lynn St. Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society (ISOC). “We encourage direct participation of any interested party in reinforcing the success of the existing mechanisms that have been built and driven by the Internet community.”

With regard to the results of the WSIS process, Ms. St. Amour asks that governments and other stakeholders remind themselves that decisions should be taken with the interests of Internet users in mind. “At the end of the day, the WSIS should protect the openness of the Internet and promote ways of facilitating access for those who wish to benefit from this incredibly valuable medium,” said Ms. St. Amour.

The ‘Internet Pavilion’ brochure can be found at:
http://www.isoc.org/internetpavilion.pdf

Notes to editors:
Organisations at the ‘Internet Pavilion’ at WSIS are:

Internet Society (ISOC)
http://www.isoc.org

The Internet Society (ISOC) is a not-for-profit membership organisation providing leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. For over 13 years ISOC has run international network training programs for developing countries and these have played a vital role in setting up the Internet connections and networks in virtually every country connecting to the Internet during this time.

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
http://www.ietf.org

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has provided leadership in the development of Internet standards for nearly 20 years. The IETF is a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is open to any interested individual.

Number Resource Organization (NRO)
http://www.nro.net

Formed by the Regional Internet Registries to formalise their cooperative efforts, the Number Resource Organization exists to protect the unallocated Number Resource pool. It also promotes and protects the bottom-up policy development process, and acts as a focal point for Internet community input into the RIR system.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
http://www.icann.org

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is an internationally organized,non-profit corporation that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions.

London Internet Exchange (LINX)
http://www.linx.org

LINX is a mutual, not-for-profit organisation, which connects the networks of Content Delivery and Internet Service Providers so that traffic may flow more efficiently between them.

Council of European National Top level domain Registries (CENTR)
http://www.centr.org

The Council of European National Top-Level-Domain Registries, CENTR, is an association of Internet Country Code Top Level Domain Name (TLD) registries (such as .uk for United Kingdom, .it for Italy, .es for Spain). CENTR has a European focus, but no geographical restrictions to membership which includes a number of non-European registries, including some emerging countries. CENTR membership is responsible for 95% of all domain names currently registered worldwide.

African ISP Association (AfrISPA)
http://www.afrispa.org

AfrISPA is a continental Association of African Internet Service Provider Associations whose primary objective is to provide industry perspective on policy formulation and regulation as it relates to the Internet industry and to act as an interface with Governmental bodies and the public at large.

General information about the ‘ICT 4 all’ exhibition is available here: http://www.expo.ict4all-tunis.org

Press contacts:
Peter Godwin
Communications Manager
Internet Society
Email: godwin@isoc.org
Tel: +41 22 807 1447

‘Internet Pavilion’ contact:
Paul Rendek
Head of Member Services and Communications
RIPE NCC
Email: rendek@ripe.net
Mobile: +31 655782348