Urgent Press Briefing Tomorrow on Future Development of the Internet by Global Internet Organisations at World Summit

TUNIS, Tunisia, Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet organizations from around the globe, who have gathered at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, will hold a press briefing tomorrow, to discuss future arrangements for governance of the Internet.

The briefing will be held tomorrow, November 17th, at 2:00pm in the Interview Room of the Media Center at WSIS' ICT4All Exhibition Hall.

Today's WSIS recommendation includes a proposal for a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue, called "the Internet Governance Forum". It also calls for increased coordination by all stakeholders to ensure the future stability of the Internet. However, the WSIS' recommendations include some measures that may potentially undermine the current Internet governance arrangements.

"The Internet community, including experts and users, has always played and will continue to play a fundamental role in the stable, sustainable development and operation of the Internet. Without this active involvement, now and into the future, the continued success of the Internet cannot be guaranteed. We must not take the Internet for granted: it did not 'just happen'; it is only the result of the deliberate efforts of this community," states Axel Pawlik, Chairman of the Number Resource Organisation (NRO).

Speakers will include organizations represented at the 'Internet Pavilion' including the Internet Society (ISOC), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Number Resource Organization (NRO), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the London Internet Exchange (LINX), the Council of European National Top-level Domain Registries (CENTR) and the African ISP Association (AfrISPA). The Internet Pavilion is at stand 1323 in the Kram Palexpo.

"There are very high expectations at Tunis," says Lynn St. Amour, the President and CEO of the Internet Society (ISOC). "We hope that the summit will lead to some very real and positive outcomes that will help bring the benefits of the Internet to people everywhere -- especially to those who are yet to be connected."

The 'Internet Pavilion' will demonstrate how participating organizations represent the evolving needs of the global Internet community through an open, neutral, bottom-up, collaborative and inclusive multi-stakeholder framework. The specific roles of each organization in Internet administration and coordination will be highlighted.

The 'Internet Pavilion' brochure can be found at: http://www.isoc.org/internetpavilion.pdf

 Contact:
  Jaymie Scotto
  201.839.0177