-----Original Message-----
From: icann-announce§icann.org [mailto:icann-announce§icann.org]
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2001 5:51 PM
To: ICANN Announcement List
Subject: [icann-announce] ICANN Meeting in Marina del Rey (13-15
November 2001)


Many members of the ICANN community wrote in response to the call for
input as to whether the events of 11 September would affect their plans
to travel to Los Angeles in November to attend the scheduled ICANN
meetings. Almost without exception the respondents emphatically
encouraged ICANN to hold its meetings and stated unequivocally that they
planned to attend unless the international situation deteriorated to
where travel was not practical.

Given this response and given the need to address emerging priorities,
ICANN is planning to proceed with its meeting in Marina del Rey in
November 2001, subject to any further serious change in the
international situation that would affect travel conditions. However, as
discussed below, the format of the meeting will differ significantly
from what had previously been announced. This is only a preliminary
announcement to enable attendees to firm up their travel plans. Details
of the meeting will be announced as soon as possible.

The events of 11 September have caused institutions worldwide to rethink
their priorities and plans. As an international institution, ICANN is
not immune. Although those events raise logistical and other concerns
for holding meetings, they also underscore the need to address Internet
stability issues, and security as a key component of stability. ICANN is
not responsible for the overall security of the Internet. However, given
ICANN's global responsibilities for the stability of the Internet's
naming and addressing systems and under the new circumstances facing the
international community, it would be irresponsible for ICANN not to
conduct an in depth assessment of the robustness and security of these
systems, and to take steps, if necessary, to strengthen the Internet in
these regards. These are urgent matters and of worldwide importance.

The Internet is global in reach, as are the threats of terrorism. The
events of 11 September offered a stark and tragic reminder of the
incalculable importance of a reliable and secure naming and addressing
system to support emergency response, personal and other communications,
and information sharing. E-mail, instant messaging, and the web, for
example, all played essential roles.

Accordingly, the November ICANN meetings will focus on stability and
security of the Internet's naming and addressing systems and of their
operational implementation globally. This will be the overriding
imperative for the meeting. As such, this will be a very different kind
of meeting than previous ICANN meetings and will not follow the usual
format.

At this meeting, ICANN will be seeking to promote discussion throughout
the community on how to reassess areas of potential threats that could
affect services within the scope of ICANN's responsibilities, how to
improve readiness to meet these threats, and what additional policies or
other actions should be considered and implemented to facilitate such
improvements. Clearly not all these questions will be answered in one
meeting, but ICANN must now devote its energies as members of the global
Internet community towards obtaining answers. Every constituency and
supporting organization will be asked to report on its efforts to ensure
the stability of the Internet's naming and addressing systems and what
additional steps it proposes to take to improve that stability and
security among its member organizations. Agenda items will be assessed
for inclusion by what they contribute to the overall focus of the
meeting.

Although a precise schedule has not yet been mapped out, these meetings
will last three days from 13 November through 15 November, inclusive.
Constituencies and supporting organizations will be asked to meet during
this time to focus on the topic of the meeting. There will be further
announcements next week, following additional consultations with members
of the community.

There will be a Board meeting at the end of the meeting to address
essential business. The Board agenda will concentrate on topics where
time is of the essence.

The focus of the meetings may well delay progress on some of the worthy
and important initiatives that are currently underway. The effects of
such delays have to be measured against the importance of ensuring the
stability and security of the Internet itself. This will require
patience on the part of those who may experience delays in matters of
importance to them so that the ICANN community can bear down on the
issue at hand.

Please send any comments or questions to <meeting&#167;icann.org>. More details
will be forthcoming in due course.

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