ICANN prez delivers internet vision

July 2005

In his most revealing interview since taking charge of internet overseeing organisation ICANN in March 2003, president Paul Twomey has accused governments looking to subsume ICANN into a UN body as "living in a political fantasy land", while at the same time being thankful that the internet community doesn't have tanks.

Just months before the future of the internet is decided at a world summit in Tunisia, Twomey also tackled the US government's recent assertion of control over the foundation of the internet, plus internal criticism of the organisation's expanding budget and the recent process that handed ownership of the dot-net registry to VeriSign.

Twomey also:

* Accused some governments of being short-sighted in their aims
* Offered reform of ICANN's governmental advisory committee (GAC)
* Praised the "robust and colourful" internet community
* Called for greater interaction in ICANN's decision-making processes
* Promised that ICANN would focus on improving its core technical functions

He also outlined how ICANN was now entering the world of inter-governmental negotiations as the internet grows from its roots of being an engineer and academic-created network to a global medium with vital implications for worldwide education, information and commerce, plus the role he expected to play in keeping ICANN's best interests at the top of the agenda.