ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) 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.
The RIPE NCC and the RIPE community work closely with ICANN in a number of areas:
More information on the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).
ICANN 55 was held from 5-10 March 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco, and marked another milestone in the march towards transition of the IANA functions stewardship to the global Internet community. RIPE NCC Executive Board members, staff and RIPE community participants took part in meetings throughout the week, discussing issues ranging from IANA stewardship and the accountability of ICANN to the accuracy of RIR whois databases.
The ICANN 54 meeting was held in Dublin from 18-22 October 2015. Attracting around 1,800 attendees, the big topic over the course of the week was the ongoing project to transition stewardship of the IANA functions to the global multistakeholder community.
The IANA stewardship transition process reached an important milestone during the recent ICANN 53 meeting (21-25 June in Buenos Aires, Argentina), with all three of the IANA operational communities now having submitted their responses to the Request For Proposals issued last year by the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG).
The 52nd ICANN meeting was held in Singapore from 8-12 February, attracting around 1800 participants on-site, as well as numerous remote participants. The issues surrounding ICANN accountability and the transition of IANA stewardship were again at the top of the agenda, and RIPE community members and RIPE NCC staff contributed to these discussions.
The 51st ICANN meeting was held in Los Angeles, USA, from 11-16 October 2014, with questions surrounding the IANA stewardship transition and the accountability of ICANN driving much of the agenda.