[kictanet] ICANN 10 years old

[alice at apc.org]

ICANN: 10 Years Old Today

A decade of multi-stakeholder decision-making and coordination

30 September 2008

ICANN is ten years old today.

On 30 September 1998, ICANN's articles of incorporation were  
officially filed, recognizing "a nonprofit public benefit  
corporation...not organized for the private gain of any person."

One month later, the first organizational meeting of the Board of  
Directors was held in New York at the Holiday Inn JFK and named  
Michael Roberts as the Interim President and CEO, and Esther Dyson as  
Chairman.

Since then there have been two more chairman, two new CEOs, dozens of  
Board members, Committee members and Advisory Group members, 153  
official meetings of the Board, 32 international public meetings, and,  
of course, thousands of individuals that have all contributed to  
making ICANN a leading, global, multi-stakeholder organization that  
runs the domain name system through a process of coordination not  
control.

Current chairman Peter Dengate Thrush reflected today: "Ten years ago,  
there were 100 million people that used the Internet. Its inventors  
originally thought the network would only ever have to cater for one  
million users. But in the creation of ICANN, the Internet community  
and the US Government recognized they needed to privatize the domain  
name system to increase competition and international participation.

"Thanks to that decision, and with nearly one-and-a-half billion  
people online, the network goes from strength to strength. And we  
hope, with the plans we have laid on the table, that the next ten  
years of extraordinary growth also occurs seamlessly for ordinary  
Internet user."

So, what has ICANN done in the past decade?

     * Back in 1998, there was a single registrar, charging $50 a year  
for domain names; now there are over 900 ICANN-accredited registrars 1  
and a domain costs from just $6 2
     * Helped the domain name system grow from roughly three million  
domains a decade ago to over 160 million today 3
     * Expanded the Internet's generic top-level domains from three  
(dotcom, dotnet and dotorg) to 16, including .info, .biz, .cat, .asia,  
.mobi and .name 4
     * Seen over 35,000 domains go through the Uniform Dispute  
Resolution Process 5, a faster, cheaper and more efficient alternative  
to the law courts for ownership disputes
     * Developed policies with the full involvement of governments,  
business, the technical community and individual Net users that make  
the Internet's addressing system able to adapt to the radical new uses  
that the network is put to every year

President and CEO of ICANN, Paul Twomey, said: "ICANN now represents a  
truly international organization. We have offices in Los Angeles,  
Brussels and Washington, as well as presences in a number of other  
countries. Board and Committee members come from every corner of the  
planet and the ICANN community is as diverse as the Internet itself. I  
look forward to seeing ICANN's success continue for the next 10 years  
and beyond."

About ICANN:

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 is responsible for the global  
coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers like  
domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .uk) and the  
addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols that help computers  
reach each other over the Internet.

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit  
corporation 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.

Media Contacts:

Jason Keenan
Media Advisor, ICANN
P: +1 310 382 4004
E: jason.keenan at icann.org