The Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) has organized and is holding a policy workshop, One World, One Internet? New gTLDs & Competition in a Changing Global Environment, next week in Beijing at ICANN-46. The program, which brings together top Western and Chinese experts, will explore pressures for integration versus fragmentation of the Internet and implications for ICANN, as well as different competition and regulation perspectives as they relate to new gTLDs.
The workshop will be held on Wednesday April 10, 2013 from 13:00 to 15:00 (Beijing time, click here for your local time) in Function Room 8AB of the Beijing International Hotel. The workshop is open to everyone and is free to attend. However, for planning purposes, we ask that you please register. Interpretation and remote participation facilities will be provided by ICANN, more details are available on their website.
Please also join us the preceding day for a NCUC Outreach Cocktail, which will be held Tuesday April 9 2013 from 18:00-19:00 in the Grand Hall Foyer B. Many thanks to our event sponsors, including CGI.br, Public Internet Registry, and the Internet Society.
NCUC Policy Workshop Program
Tuesday, 9 April 9 2013, Grand Hall Foyer B
18.00 – 19.00
NCUC Outreach Cocktail
All are Welcome!
Wednesday, 10 April 2013, Function Room 8AB
13.00 -13.05: Welcome and Opening:
Robin Gross, Chair of the GNSO Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group
William J. Drake, Chair of the GNSO Non-Commercial Users Constituency
13.05 – 14.00: One World One Internet? Integration vs. Fragmentation
ICANN stands for “One World, One Internet.” The Internet’s progress from a limited academic network in the 1980s into a universal global infrastructure in the 2010s was enabled by the fact that it was open, free and borderless. The Internet’s end-to-end architecture enabled “innovation without permission” and became the driving force for connecting people around the globe regardless of location, government policies, culture and jurisdiction. However as the Internet community grows towards four billion users, will political and cultural differences and corporate strategies lead to a more balkanized or fragmented Internet? Are pressures for “national internets” growing? The panel will discuss current trends in technology and commerce as well as implications of possible fragmentation, particularly for ICANN’s management of domain names and IP addresses.
Moderator:
Wolfgang Kleinwächter, NCUC, Professor for International Communication Policy and Regulation, U. of Aarhus
Panelists:
Tarek Kamel, Senior Advisor to President for Governmental Engagement, ICANN
Markus Kummer, Vice President of Public Policy, The Internet Society
William J. Drake, NCUC, and International Fellow and Lecturer, University of Zurich
Yongge Sun, Director, The Internet Society of China
He Baohong, Director of Communications Standards Research Institute, China Academy of Telecommunication Research, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
Leonid Todorov, Deputy Director for Government and International Relations, Russian Registry for TLDs
14.00 – 15.00: New gTLDs, Competition and Regulation on the Internet: Chinese and Western Perspectives
The creation of many new gTLDs will lead to new forms of competition. In some cases, IDNs will allow registries and registrars in foreign countries to compete with country code domains (ccTLDs). Sometimes ccTLDs use their domain to regulate Internet users, for example by requiring permissions and identification to register. Will foreign competition undermine these efforts? Domain name policies can also be used to build up a national competitor and protect it from foreign competition. This panel will explore the policy issues from both Chinese and Western perspectives.
Moderator:
Dr. Hong Xue, Professor of Law, Director of Institute for the Internet Policy and Law, Beijing Normal Univ.
Panelists:
Limei Liu, Director of the Department of International and Legal Affairs, China Organizational Name Administration Center (CONAC)
Xiantang Sun, Senior International Policy Strategist, China National Network Information Center (CNNIC)
Milton Mueller, NCUC, Professor Syracuse U. School of Information Studies, Internet Governance Project
Avri Doria, NCUC, Independent researcher
Antony Van Couvering, CEO, Minds + Machines and Top Level Domain Holdings
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