CENTR announces support for Internet Infrastructure Funding scheme

In an attempt to create a more focused ICANN funding to ensure Internet stability, CENTR members are now able to deposit money into a special target-oriented fund. The fund involves a special Internet Infrastructure Support funding account, which has been set up to give focused financial support to ICANN in carrying out the IANA function. It provides the ability to perform payments when the participating registries feel these functions are fulfilled.

PRESS RELEASE

"CENTR announces support for Internet Infrastructure Funding scheme"

For Immediate Release

Oxford,(PRWEB) October 17 2003-- the Council for European National Top Level Domain Registries (CENTR) announced today the creation of the Internet Infrastructure Funding Support Scheme to establish a long lasting financial contribution to the stability of the Internet.

"Stability of the Internet's core function is essential to the CENTR members and the communities they serve" said Paul M. Kane, Chairman of CENTR "Finances are an important element of this stability and we feel the setting up this fund fits perfectly into what CENTR has been doing to support and develop the internet community for the last five years".

Since its creation in March 1998, CENTR has been working with members from 48 countries to contribute to the stability of the Internet in selected areas of importance for the users and the local Internet community of their respective countries as a whole.

- The "Best Practice Guidelines for ccTLD Managers" which have been recently updated to adapt them even closer to the evolution of the needs of users of Internet country code top-level domains (such as .DE, .UK, .FR etc). This Best Practice document has become a trusted reference for Internet Stakeholders.

- Technical Workshops have been organised in essential topics so that exchanges and discussions allow every member to master and benefit from the latest available technology that makes today's Internet and will improve the experience of their local community: Internationalised Domain Names to offer a better flexibility to users who can now access some sites with names written in their own language and script, IPv6 for better and more flexible servers addresses, DNSSEC to enhance security and privacy on the Network... To improve technical stability of the Internet.

- Legal Workgroups have been created as well to address relevant issues and improve the legal stability of the Internet: Data Privacy, Cyber Squatting... Each of these problems has been of concern to the Internet Community. By sharing them among CENTR members, ccTLDs managers have been able to discover new approaches benefiting the Internet users they represent... To improve legal stability of the Internet.

- CENTR also acts as a facilitator between local governments and Internet stakeholders. CENTR regularly meets with Government officials from Europe and the global community and the fact that organisations such as the European Commission are observer members of CENTR, ensures that all the relevant participants can express their views and improve the political stability of the Internet.

The Internet Infrastructure Support Scheme, has to date received contributions amounting to $141,334.50 from .the following ccTLD registries: AC, .AT, .BV, .DE, .GG, .IR, .LU, .NO, .SI, .SJ to ensure the continued stable operation of the IANA function performed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Other ccTLDs have indicated their interest in joining the scheme in the coming year.

In addition to this initative CENTR members are providing financial assistance for ccTLD Managers from the African Region to travel to regional meetings and technical workshops. "It is really important that as much as possible that the representatives of the Internet Community worldwide are able to participate in the various meetings and workgroups so we can all work together to continually raise the already exemplary quality of service and security standards of the Internet. That's why we feel it's in CENTR's mission to facilitate outreach to selected countries," concludes Kane.

See letter announcing the details of the Internet Infrastructure Funding Support Scheme:
http://www.centr.org/news/200310-kane-iana-funding.pdf
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About CENTR

The Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR) is an association of Internet Country Code Top-Level Domain Registries - commonly known as ccTLD Registries. It has a European focus, but is open for membership from all geographical areas.

CENTR has offices in UK, Austria and Belgium and consists of full members, associate members, observers and a secretariat. Today, CENTR counts over 50 ccTLDs from around the world amongst its membership.

One of CENTR's main objectives is to provide a forum for its members to exchange information and discuss issues of importance. The CENTR secretariat also collects and documents information about member registries for internal and external use.