ICANN67 – COVID19 : 0-1

The 67th annual ICANN Summit, a summit dedicated to Internet naming regulations, was to be held in Cancún, Mexico, from 7th to 12th March. Often referred to by the acronym ICANN67, it is finally another acronym COVID19 that designates the now famous coronavirus that forced ICANN to reconsider all the logistics of this major event.

Since 1999,
ICANN has organised three annual meetings devoted to the regulations applicable
to Internet naming and a fourth devoted to more operational aspects, often
referred to as the GDD Summit (Global Domain Division Summit). These meetings
are an opportunity for participants from some 150 countries to discuss live the
hot topics related to the Domain Name System (DNS).

For the
past few weeks, however, world attention has focused on a completely different
subject: the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, which according to the latest
figures available has contaminated some 75,465 people in mainland China and
caused the death of 2,236 people since its emergence in December in Wuhan,
capital of Hubei province. While South Korea also now has more than 150
confirmed cases, the list of countries with confirmed cases keeps growing. More
than 30 countries are now in this situation.

Quite
logically, in recent weeks, behind the scenes of the ICANN organization,
coronavirus has been rising as a major concern for the players in the domain
name industry. More and more potential participants were talking about the fact
that they would prefer not to travel for this event, which is important to
them, while others were asking whether it was appropriate to hold this event in
such a context. Recent cancellations of similar events have indeed echoed their
concerns. Earlier this month, the GSMA, the organizers of the world’s largest
mobile industry exhibition, Mobile World Congress 2020, effectively cancelled
the event after more than 30 exhibitors and sponsors withdrew due to the
outbreak. The Fintech Festival of India (IFF 2020) organised by the government
of Maharashtra, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY),
the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Fintech Convergence
Council also similarly announced this week that it would postpone the event to
a “more appropriate time” due to coronavirus-related issues. The
event was scheduled to take place on 4-5 March 2020.

At the 19
February session of the ICANN Board, which was extended by one hour, ICANN
finally decided :

« Resolved
(2020.02.19.01), by virtue of the public health emergency of international
concern posed by COVID-19, the daily evolving developments, and the high global
risk still identified, the Board directs the ICANN President and CEO, or his
designees, to take all necessary actions to not hold ICANN67 as an in-person
meeting in Cancún, Mexico.

Resolved
(2020.02.19.02), as the Board has determined to not proceed to Cancun, Mexico
for ICANN67, the Board directs the ICANN President and CEO to move ICANN67 to
ICANN’s first fully remote public meeting. »

The ICANN Board
communiqué confirms that the summit, which is usually held in person, will for
the first time be entirely managed remotely with means still to be clarified.

If the
holding of such event in a remote mode is unprecedented, it should be noted
that in the past ICANN has already changed the organization of its meetings for
similar reasons. Indeed in June 2016, for example, ICANN decided to move
ICANN56 from Panama City to Helsinki in Finland because of the Zika virus. The
only difference is that their decision could have been anticipated earlier.

This is why
ICANN has already taken up the subject for the holding of the following events :
the GDD Summit planned in Paris in May and then the ICANN68 planned in Kuala
Lumpur in Malaysia in June.

First published at nameshield blog