[kictanet] Fellowships to Ensure Global Voices Heard at ICANN

[alice]

see <http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-02aug07.htm>

Fellowships to Ensure Global Voices Heard at ICANN

Program builds on the successful pilot program run at San Juan meeting

2 August 2007

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: More voices from across the globe will be heard 
at ICANN's 30th International Public Meeting in Los Angeles later this 
year thanks to the global fellowships program being launched today.

"ICANN has a global mandate and it's important that we do what we can to 
support participation from every corner of the world. This program makes 
sure we have involvement from individuals from developing and least 
developed nations who otherwise may be unable to attend," said Theresa 
Swinehart, ICANN's Vice President, Global and Strategic Partnerships. 
"The pilot of the fellowship program at our San Juan meeting was a 
success and has helped us refine the program for the upcoming ICANN 
meeting in Los Angeles."

The 33 fellows from 24 countries who played an active role at the San 
Juan meeting were chosen from 125 applications received -- and 65 per 
cent of the fellows and 68 per cent of applicants had never attended an 
ICANN meeting.

Priority will be given to applicants who are current residents of 
developing and least developed nations who are interested in 
participating in ICANN and its supporting organizations, such as the 
Governmental Advisory Committee, the Country Code Names Supporting 
Organization, and the Generic Names Supporting Organization. The 
fellowship will assist in covering airfare, hotel and a stipend. 
Recipients will be expected to actively participate in and contribute to 
ICANN processes. As always, registration for ICANN's meetings is free 
for anyone wanting to attend. The Los Angeles meeting will be held from 
29 October to 2 November 2007.

"ICANN is working on major efforts with internationalized domain names 
and new top-level domains -- efforts that represent some of the biggest 
changes to the Internet since it was invented," Swinehart added. "ICANN 
wants as much input and global engagement as possible on issues like 
IDNs and top-level domains -- and the fellowship program has a key role 
in helping us accomplish that goal."

Applications will be accepted from now until 1200 PDT (UTC -7) on Friday 
24 August 2007. More information, as well as a link to the application 
for a fellowship, is available online at: http://www.icann.org/fellowships/

etc etc about ICANN.
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