The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced a number of new working partnerships.
It comes as the organisation prepares for the rollout of a new generic top-level domain program, which is going to make it imperative that ICANN has a good working relationship with businesses across the world thanks to the number of domain names that will be up for grabs.
Chief executive officer Fadi Chehade noted he was able to take part in some fruitful discussions with “important organizations and groups in the internet ecosystem” at the recent Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Azerbaijan.
He added these conversations are designed to make sure that the body can meet the organizational goals it set out at the start of the year.
“We need to expand our outreach, so we have agreed to set up engagement frameworks with both the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association,” Mr Chehade stated.
ICC secretary general Jean-Guy Carrier has called on ICANN to increase its dialogue with businesses around the world, as he believes that members of his body have plenty to contribute to the debate “around the future needs of business on the internet”.
Janis Karklins, assistant director-general for communication and information at Unesco, noted the body is willing to support ICANN as it looks to deal with the increased usage of the web. Moving forward, he observed that liaisons have been appointed to make sure there is a constant stream of conversation.
Before the IGF took place between November 6th and 9th, Mr Chehade revealed that he was looking forward to being a part of it. As well as talking about country code top-level domain operators, Domain Name System Security Extensions were also set to be on the agenda.
However, the ultimate aim of the meeting was to put a system in place whereby it is easier for ICANN to work with key organizations in the internet ecosystem.