News Release: World Wide Web Consortium Joins ICANN Protocol Support Organization

World Wide Web Consortium Joins ICANN Protocol Support Organization
http://www.w3.org/1999/07/15-ICANN-PressRelease.html


http://www.w3.org/ -- 15 July 1999 -- The World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) has joined in the creation of the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Protocol Support Organization. Other
founding organizations include the European Telecommunications Standards
Institute (ETSI), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

According to Daniel Weitzner, W3C Technology and Society Domain Leader,
the purpose of the Protocol Support Organization (PSO) is to provide
technical and architectural advice to ICANN on the management of the
Domain Name System (DNS) and other core Internet facilities. In addition
to this advisory role, the PSO will name three members of the ICANN
Board of Directors.

W3C's Interest in ICANN

The Web's addressing scheme (URIs) depends on domain naming schemes, the
area under ICANN's stewardship. The success of ICANN is critical to the
integrity of the Web as a universal information space. As a result, W3C
has been actively involved in the formation of the Protocol Support
Organization and has followed the progress of ICANN closely.

The creation of the Protocol Support Organization where many
international standards development organizations are coming together
successfully demonstrates how the cooperative model for Internet and Web
development works, and bears similarities to the consensus-building
approach of W3C.

W3C looks forward to working with ETSI, ITU, and the IETF to ensure that
the ICANN framework supports the open, dynamic, and decentralized
standards development environment that has been critical to the growth
of the Internet and the Web.

About the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing
common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its
interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run
by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, the
National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA)
in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the
Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web
for developers and users, reference code implementations to embody and
promote standards, and various prototype and sample applications to
demonstrate use of new technology. To date, over 340 organizations are
Members of the Consortium.

Received on Thursday, 15 July 1999 12:07:43 UTC