‘ICANN Should Serve Global Internet Interests’

ICANN’s future duties and responsibilities were discussed during the latest RIPE meeting of Internet Service Providers, network operators and other interested parties. In the light of the upcoming changes, when the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, IANA, run by ICANN will cease to be supervised by the US, Hans Petter Holen, RIPE’s chairman, argued that ICANN should be serving the interests of a broader Internet public. It would not suffice for ICANN to follow the interests of companies, he said. Holen also said that RIPE and other IANA entities require waterproof contracts, especially with the future of ICANN still being undecided.

The future supervision of IANA will also be the main topic of eco’s competence group Names & Numbers event on 9 December 2014 in Berlin: eco Dialog on the Future II – New Alignment of Internet Administration. Participants from politics, the media and industry will be able to inform themselves about the current status of the new alignment of Internet administration and discuss eco’s idea of the multi-stakeholder dialog and self-administration.