Global input and ideas will be on the rise at the 42 nd Public Meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers thanks to ICANN’s on-going Fellowship program. Now in its fifth year of successful capacity building and participation in the ICANN community, the Program’s mission is to identify members of the Internet community who either have not previously been able to participate in ICANN processes and constituent organizations, or those who require further exposure to the Internet community and its work but cannot travel and attend a meeting without financial support. Outreach is focused on the less developed regions of the world, in order to help create a broader base of knowledgeable constituents who will become the new voice of experience in their regions and beyond. As a reminder about the process, applications for each meeting are assessed by an independent selection committee, and priority is given to applicants who: meet minimum program requirements; are current residents of developing and least developed nations in the five ICANN regions; and who are interested in participating in ICANN and its supporting organizations, advisory committees or stakeholder groups. An effort is made to include more participants from the region that the current meeting is being held in, as long as minimum requirements have been satisfied. Additionally, all confirmed fellowship participants must comply with the terms and conditions of the Fellowship program, as outlined at http://www.icann.org/en/fellowships/terms-and-conditions.htm . As stated within these terms and conditions, ICANN is a California non-profit public benefit corporation incorporated in the United States and must therefore comply with all the laws and regulations of California and the United States. Fellows are responsible for obtaining all travel visas once accepted into the program. ICANN will only purchase tickets for Fellows after all necessary documentation has been obtained and Fellows demonstrate that they have obtained all necessary travel visas. Once all of the requirements for travel are met, the Fellowship program arranges airfare and hotel, as well as provides a stipend, following successful completion of the Fellowship program, to assist with some meeting costs incurred. Recipients will be expected to actively participate in and contribute to ICANN processes during and after the meeting. As always, registration for ICANN’s meetings is free for anyone wanting to attend. The meeting in Dakar, Senegal will be held from 23-28 October 2011. For this 14th round of the Fellowship Program, 19 fellows have been selected from 18 countries, chosen amongst the 78 applications received. Seven of the fellows are alumni from at least one of the past 13 programmes; 10 are first-time attendees to any ICANN meeting, 2 individuals have attended past meetings, but are first time fellows. There is representation from all sectors including civil, government, academia, and from business or user groups. Also included in these sectors are representatives of country code supporting groups. You will find this current list of participants at: http://www.icann.org/en/fellowships/ The 43 nd ICANN Public Meeting will be held in San Jose, Costa Rica (Latin America region) from 11-16 March 2012. The online application process for that meeting opens on 30 September 2011; look to the ICANN homepage for that announcement. About ICANN: To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer – a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers. ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. This ICANN announcement was sourced from: www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-18aug11-en.htm
