Washington, DC, USA -- June 19, 1998 -- Responding to the U.S. Government White Paper on the Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses, a broadly based coalition of Internet stakeholder associations is calling for an international forum to prepare for the transition from government to private management.

The International Forum on the White Paper (IFWP) is an international initiative sponsored by a diverse group of associations representing numerous Internet stakeholder interests from around the world. The IFWP is sponsoring coordinated international meetings to discuss the issues of Internet technical administration of names and numbers left open in the "White Paper" and the transition to a new corporation for Internet technical administration.

In a White Paper released June 5, the U.S. government announced its intention to relinquish control of the Internet to a private, non-profit organization by September 30, 2000. The new organization will be created from among the diverse parties that have a stake in how domain names, Internet numbers and other Internet identifiers for the Internet are managed.

The IFWP consists of associations around the world representing diverse Internet interests. Its purpose is to provide an organizing framework for the coordinated international meetings. The preliminary work to ensure that the international meetings are coordinated is being undertaken by an international, volunteer steering committee of IFWP sponsors.

The first regional IFWP meeting will be held on July 1-2, at the Hyatt Regency Reston, Reston, Virginia, USA. Chaired by Professor Tamar Frankel -- a world-renowned expert on incorporation -- of the Boston University School of Law -- the two-day event will seek to identify key issues, views and opinions on the areas left open by the White Paper to private sector development.

These issues include the formation of the private sector corporation for the technical administration of names and numbers; the development of a new domain name registry and dispute resolution system; and security and privacy issues associated with the Internet’s technical infrastructure.

Additional meetings are planned around the world during the summer in anticipation of the end of existing U.S. Government contracts that manage the current Internet name and number systems. Two other meetings are currently being planned, one in Europe in July and another in Asia in early August

Further information about the International Forum on the White Paper, including a list of sponsoring associations, is available at http://www.ifwp.org/.

Current IFWP Sponsoring Organizations (as of June 19, 1998):

• Association for Interactive Media (AIM)
• Association of Internet Professionals (AIP)
• Association of Online Professionals (AOP)
• Asia & Pacific Internet Association (APIA)
• Camara Argentina de Bases de Datos y Servicios en Linea (CABASE)
• Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP)
• Commercial Internet eXchange Association (CIX)
• Computer Software and Services Association (CSSA)
• Educom/Educause
• European Internet Service Providers Association (EuroISPA)
• International Law & Policy Forum (ILPF)
• Internet Alliance (IA)
• Internet Society (ISOC)
• Internet Service Providers Consortium (ISP/C)
• Information Technology Association of America (ITAA)
• Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)
• US Council for International Business (USCIB)