auDA works hand-in-hand with likeminded members of the Australian and international community to advocate for the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance. As part of this work, we recently attended two international forums that brought the community together for information sharing, discussion and action to support a reliable, interoperable internet and its benefits.
Read about our experiences at the 76th meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN76) and the 83rd meeting of the Asia Pacific Top Level Domains Association (APTLD83) below.
ICANN76
ICANN’s first meeting of the year was a Community Forum meeting, held in Mexico in March. The meeting marked the beginning of a new phase for the organisation with new Board Chair Tripti Sinha taking office in September 2022 and former Chief Executive Goran Marby stepping down in December 2022. Tripti and Interim Chief Executive Sally Costerton led proceedings at the Welcoming Ceremony, which created a sense of momentum for ICANN heading into a busy year’s work.
Tripti described 2023 as an inflection point where ICANN seeks to deliver on its core role while also preparing to play a role in upcoming global reviews of how internet governance is done (see our recent post on WSIS+20 for background on this core issue).
auDA was represented during the meeting by CEO Rosemary Sinclair AM, Chief Operating Officer Dr Bruce Tonkin, Chief Communications Officer Sophie Mitchell, Internet Governance and Policy Director Jordan Carter and Special Policy Adviser Annaliese Williams. The delegation focused on country code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) technical, policy and governance discussions, as well as cross-community sessions in areas of strategic interest, including domain abuse mitigation and internet governance and geopolitical developments.
We played an active leadership role throughout the week.
- Rosemary participated in the ccNSO’s Strategic and Operational Planning Standing Committee
- Bruce participated in meetings of the DNS Abuse Standing Committee and a Governmental Advisory Committee capacity building session on DNS abuse mitigation
- Sophie participated in the Nominating Committee, which is responsible for selecting nine ICANN leadership positions in 2023
- Jordan, Vice Chair of the ccNSO Council, participated in a well-attended ICANN-wide Plenary session on the importance of improving multi-stakeholder governance and upcoming United Nations processes
- Annaliese chaired meetings of the Internet Governance Liaison Committee and moderated a ccNSO News Session on how the digital divide impacts on country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) managers.
The ICANN community continues to build pace and connection at these in-person events with more than 1,000 delegates attending in person. The in-person component was supported by virtual participation, with another 800 participants joining online.
To learn more about ICANN76, the agenda, presentations and recordings of public sessions can be found at the ICANN76 website. CENTR, the European federation of ccTLDs, has also published posts on dealing with DNS abuse in the ICANN environment and a deep dive into some of the impacts of European legislation like Network and Information Security (NIS2) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on registration data in the domain name system.
APTLD83
APTLD83 was a members meeting, which took place in Vientiane, Laos in February. Topics spanned from cyber security regulation and DNS security to policy approaches to zonefile sharing, staff capacity building best practice and Internationalised Domain Names and more.
auDA staff were in attendance online and in person. We moderated and contributed to panels on automated approaches to mitigating DNS abuse, and on the impact of developing technologies including Web3 and the metaverse. A post-meeting communique published by APTLD gives a sense of the occasion. You can find the agenda and many of the presentations on the APTLD website.
As always, the auDA team welcomes your feedback on any highlights, or any questions you have about these meetings which we can help you with.
