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Brazil has a representative on the ICANN Task Force on Funding

The Project Manager of RNP, José Luiz Ribeiro Filho, was invited to join the most recent task force of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a Task Force on Funding (TFF).The goal of TFF is to present recommendations to the ICANN Board by the end of the year on alternative solutions and their respective operational means so as to permit ICANN to obtain necessary funding for its activities.

From the outset, ICANN activities have been sponsored by donations from companies and organizations interested in helping to consolidate this new model of global Internet coordination. This model, however, is inadequate for an organization of the scope and undertaking of ICANN, which will be successor to Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) in the administration of domain registration systems and IP number allocation, while also defining parameters for network protocol.

The ICANN Board has suggested to TFF that it considers as potential source of funds for its maintenance a part of the resources coming from worldwide Internet operational base services, i.e. the registration of domains (global and national) and IP addresses. The work of the task force will be to propose ways of dividing up the annual maintenance cost of ICANN activities (estimated at about US$ 5 million) between registrations and those registering domains and, likewise, among regional organizations currently allocating great IP block addresses.

Ten professionals involved in these activities in various regions of the world were chosen to comprise the task force, as follows:

. Three from IP address distribution centers: Kim Hubbard (ARIN), Paul Wilson (APNIC) and Marjam Kuehne (RIPE);
. Three from new global registration centers: Rich Forman (Register.com), Peter Gerrand (Melbourne IT) and Willie Black (Nominet UK);
. Three from ccTLD: Naomasa Maruyama (JPNIC), Per-Aners Hurtigh (Sweden) and José Luiz Ribeiro Filho (Brazil); and; . one from the gTLD registry (.com): Don Telage (NSI).

The choice of a Brazilian to comprise TFF shows the recognition, on the part of ICANN, of efforts that have been developed in Brazil to coordinate the Internet, as well as the leadership that this country holds in Latin America. This fact in particular "increases even more our responsibility in seeking solutions to assure ICANN maintenance, without causing a negative impact on the development of the Internet in other nations of this continent," José Luiz points out. Various Latin American nations are still in a consolidation stage of the Internet and would not be able to afford additional outlay to help fund ICANN. Inversely, the process of coordinating the entire Internet worldwide, which is beginning to be consolidated by ICANN, requires the participation of all its members in all possible ways, "though each within his own means," adds the Project Manager of RNP.

The TFF work agenda up until November includes at least three videoconferences and one meeting to be attended in person, the latter being scheduled in compliance with the next ICANN Board meeting in the U.S. in November. Throughout this period, TFF participants will be consulting with their communities so as to subsidize the proposals under discussion. For greater detail on the work the task force will be developing, see the ICANN homepage.

[RNP, 09.27.1999]