ICANN 49


Dates:	23-27 March 2014
Location:	Singapore, Singapore
Venue:	Raffles City Convention Centre
Website:	ICANN 49 Website
Registration:	Public List - ccNSO List

ICANN 49 was held from March 23 to March 27, 2014 in Singapore, Singapore.^[1]

ICANN 49 was the third ICANN Meeting in the organization's history to be held in Singapore. Previous meetings held in Singapore were ICANN 1 and ICANN 41.

Major Events & Topics[edit | edit source]

NTIA Announcement[edit | edit source]

In the weeks leading up to ICANN 49, NTIA released an announcement on March 14, 2014 that stated it would begin transition of key DNS functions to the global Internet stakeholder community. The announcement created a wealth of discussion within the ICANN community and the global media, and became a major topic and talking-point during ICANN 49.^[2]^[3] This topic would later become know as the IANA Transition.

President's Opening Speech[edit | edit source]

Fadi Chehade gave a speech during the Opening Ceremony of ICANN 49, as is customary. He touched on a number of subjects including ICANN globalization, ICANN activities, the NTIA announcement, Internet Governance and NETmundial, and the globalization of the IANA.

Chehade began by apologizing to stakeholders in the Asian region, as he found that ICANN did not have a presence there when he visited 1 year ago. He noted that now ICANN has an Asian hub office with 14 staff members and thus ICANN is fulfilling its commitment to globalize the organization. After discussing various ICANN activities, he spoke about the recent NTIA announcement and addressed Lawrence Strickling, the administrator of IANA for the US Government, directly several times, thanking him for the US Government's stewardship and faith in ICANN and the multistakeholder model. He also mentioned that the stakeholder community should not only focus on the globalization of IANA, but should discuss how ICANN's own accountability should evolve as well without US oversight.

Chehade spoke about ICANN's work in Internet Governance and why the upcoming NETmundial meeting is important for evolving the scope and work of Internet Governance within the global community. He mentioned that Internet Governance should never be prioritized ahead of ICANN's core work and mission but that ICANN is a piece of the Internet Governance ecosystem. He closed his speech by reviewing ICANN history, starting with Jon Postel and his work as "The IANA" organizing the entire DNS on a notecard. He reiterated the principles that the US Government made when they announced the IANA Transition and promised Secretary Strickling that ICANN and global community would come back with a proposal that met those principles.^[4]

Video of Chehade's speech can be found here.