Very loud applause..... Eric here

FYI

[http://www.vocus.com/images/pr/icannheader2_logo.jpg] FOR RELEASE: Immediate

MEDIA CONTACTS: Mike Silber ICANN Board Member Bromhof, South Africa Ph. +27 82 773 1288 mike.silber@icann.org<mailto:mike.silber@icann.org>

Anne-Rachel Inne ICANN Regional Manager for Africa Niger, Africa Ph. + 1 323 304 3420 anne-rachel.inne@icann.org<mailto:anne-rachel.inne@icann.org>

Internationalization of the Internet Marks Historic Agreement

Washington, D.C… September 30, 2009… ICANN has signed an historic Affirmation Agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce that confirms the effectiveness of the ICANN model of international multi-stakeholder and bottom-up governance of the global Internet addressing system.

“This means that there can no longer be any doubt that the Internet belongs to the world and is not under the control of any single government or special interest group,” said Mike Silber, a member of ICANN’s Board of Directors. “The very fact that I, as a citizen of South Africa serve on ICANN’s board, along with representatives from around the world speaks to the international diversity of this very unique organization.”

“This new Affirmation marks an exciting new stage in ICANN’s development as a truly international entity and it confirms once and for all, that the ICANN model of public participation works, and works effectively” said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN Chief Executive Officer. “One world, one Internet, everyone connected – this is our goal at ICANN. This agreement gives international stakeholders an even more powerful voice in our activities moving forward.”

“The Internet is global and it is critical that its governance reflect its international nature,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, a New Zealander who serves as ICANN’s Chairman of the Board. “Now we can clearly say that a new era of the Internationalization of the Internet has begun.”

“This historic agreement is only one part of this internationalization process,” said Mike Silber. “Soon because of ICANN’s Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) program, all portions of an Internet domain name may be made-up of characters from almost any language. This will lead to a huge increase in Internet users from regions in the world, such as the Middle East or Asia, where people may not be using computer keyboards with Latin-based characters.”

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To read the Affirmation Agreement go here: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-30sep09-en.htm#affirmatio...

To read the reactions of various business and government leaders go here: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-30sep09-en.htm#reaction

To see a videotaped interview with CEO Rod Beckstrom on the Affirmation Agreement go here: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-30sep09-en.htm#video

To learn more about ICANN’s Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) program go here: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/factsheet-idn-program-05jun09.pdf

About ICANN:

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type a domain name of IP address into your computer. It 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 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. 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. For more information please visit: www.icann.org<http://www.icann.org/>.

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