The 61st international meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is taking place this week, from March 10-15, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Several Winterfeldt IP Group team members are attending ICANN 61.
ICANN 61, the first of three global meetings that will take place in 2018, is framed as a community forum meeting, the traditional meeting format ICANN used for many years before switching to a rotating schedule of three different meeting styles. The San Juan meeting features a robust schedule of sessions for the GNSO Council (the body that develops global domain name policy) and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), the body of over 175 country and territory representatives that advises the ICANN Board. The meeting will also offer sessions covering a number of specific policy development initiatives, updates on and working sessions for cross- community work streams, stakeholder and constituency organizational and outreach activities (including the traditional Constituency Day on Tuesday, March 13), and opportunities for a wide variety of community-wide discussions on key topics of broad interest.
Following a busy weekend featuring organizational meetings for various constituencies and stakeholder groups, as well as initial sessions for the GAC, GNSO, and assorted working groups, ICANN held its opening ceremonies for the San Juan meeting on Monday, March 12. Additional sessions on Monday included various cross-community sessions featuring discussion and perspectives from a variety of stakeholders on topics of high interest, such as GDPR/WHOIS and new gTLD registries. ICANN also held the first of its two public forum sessions, which allow all stakeholders the opportunity to ask questions of the ICANN Board and senior staff on predetermined topics. The second public forum will take place on Thursday, March 15, at the close of ICANN 61. Overall, March 12 represented a lighter day in terms of substantive sessions than the preceding weekend, in anticipation of the always-busy Constituency Day on Tuesday, March 13.
Please reach out to us at internet@winterfeldt.law if you are interested in receiving a summary and analysis of key takeaways from select sessions presented on Monday, March 12 in San Juan, including cross-community discussions and the first public forum.
