Members of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (Icann) gave a sweeping array of views on their work on
internet-related issues during a conference taking place in Rio de
Janeiro this week.
The meeting, which finishes tomorrow, is the last for outgoing
Icann president Stuart Lynn, who has headed the organisation since
March 2001. Lynn officially steps down tomorrow, passing his mantle
to Australian Paul Twomey.
Icann, which oversees technical issues related to the internet
address system, has been criticised almost since its inception in
1998 for inefficiency. Lynn laid out his vision for the
organisation's reform last year, seeking to create what he has
called "Icann 2.0" - a more responsive and agile agency.
Yesterday Twomey said that his short-term priority would be to
ensure that the reforms headed by Lynn took place.
Other priorities cited by the incoming president included
creating top-level domains (TLDs) in other languages, improving the
Whois database and consulting the internet community about the
adoption of standards.
The group is set to discuss the adoption of incorporating other
languages into the domain name system this afternoon.
Vinton Cerf, chairman of the group's board of directors, said
that while the internet is already able to handle scripts from all
over the world in its content pages, work needs to be done on
supporting these scripts in the address field.
Icann is also slated to continue discussing the possibility of
creating new TLDs, but Lynn downplayed assertions that there was a
widespread demand for them.
"I don't want you to think that it's a given that everyone
believes there should be more TLDs. That's a controversial and
interesting question," Lynn said, noting that there were a
"considerable number of problems" the last time the group
introduced new TLDs.
More details on Icann's meeting in Brazil can be found at
http://www.icann.org.