Geneva meeting to appoint domain name authority

The US government's decision to hand over control of Internet domain names - as promised in a recent white paper - has been put into action. Organisations from across the world met in Geneva at the weekend to propose a 15-strong panel of industry experts to replace the government's role.

However, if the International Forum on the White Paper (IFWP) cannot agree on its representatives, the Internet may remain under US law. Even after domain name registration opens to competition this September, the US government could still issue laws regarding the practices of each new agency. Detailed conclusions are expected later today.

The Geneva forum follows a US session, held earlier this month in Reston, Virginia. According to chairwoman Dr Tamar Frankel, the meeting defined: "a rough consensus and guidelines to the future interim board which will organise the corporation that will deal with domain names, addresses, and identifiers at the Internet".

A spokeswoman for EuroISPA, which initiated the Geneva session, said this meeting would follow the same lines. "This is the first time all these groups have been represented in an open forum," she said.

A third session, covering the Asia-Pacific region, will be held in mid-August, after which a detailed proposal will be compiled.

UK participants of the Geneva session included the CBI and ISPA.