The agenda for next week’s meeting about the future of the internet domain name system has finally been made available, although it will be subject to change. The group behind the International Forum on the White Paper (IFWP), which takes place July 1 & 2 in Reston, Virginia, has posted a discussion draft and proposed agenda, drafted by the conference chair, professor Tamar Frankel. The idea of the meeting is to lay the groundwork for forming a non-profit corporation to manage the internet’s DNS, gradually taking over the role from the US government and its contractors. It looks as if one of the most important players, the head of the of the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA), Jon Postel will make a brief keynote speech, as will presidential policy advisor and white paper co-author Ira Magaziner, as well as Frankel herself. Postel and Magaziner are also due to appear at a separate meeting later next month; the Internet Society’s annual gathering, which this year is in Geneva. The discussion draft is something of a call to arms by Frankel, who has not been part of the debates in the internet community in the past few years – which is generally seen as an advantage – but does have experience in these sorts of deliberations. She warns that no such organization has ever existed. It must be invented. Yet the people who have invented and developed the internet can meet this new challenge as well, she says in the draft. The first day of the meeting will concentrate ion the new entity: its profile, board of directors and membership and members rights and liabilities. At the moment, it looks as if all three subjects will be discussed in groups simultaneously, although that might change. The second day will be spent dealing with implementation; domain names and trademarks; security and privacy – again in separate simultaneous discussion groups. We advise anyone following this topic and the meeting should check the site regularly. It’s at http://www.ifwp.org
