By Thrishni Subramoney
Highway Africa News Agency

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is holding a major conference in Cape Town as part of its commitment to reach out to internet users around the world.

Theresa Swinehart, ICANN's General Manager in Global Partnerships, said the organisation is doing its best to engage the world by holding its tri-annual meetings in it's five different regions (Africa, Asia, North America, Latin America and Europe) on a rotational basis. This is the fourth time that the ICANN meeting has been held in Africa, and the first time that it has come to South African shores.

“I'm very happy with the response we're getting from the local Internet community. I'm pleased on many levels, firstly, we have an opportunity to inform people about ICANN and what we can and can't do.

Secondly, there is encouraging progress in the developing world, like the creation of AfriNic,” Swinehart said.

However, Clement Dzidonu, Vice Chairperson of the At Large Advisory Committee (an ICANN committee that represents the interests of individual Internet users), said African participation in ICANN is seriously lacking. He attributed this to a lack of knowledge among users about ICANN.

“The response has been poor, mainly because people don't know what ICANN is and what it does. When they realise how much ICANN affects their lives, then they will pay attention. We need to raise awareness,” Dzidonu said.

Uniforum SA director, Calvin Brown says the non-profit organisation helped bring the meeting to South African shores for the benefit of local users.

"A lot of people here who are interested can't attend ICANN meetings because of the cost of travel. So, we thought thought we could help ICANN engage with the
local Internet community. We are very pleased with the response," Brown said.

Keyboard to the future?

The key to the future may well be the one on the computer keyboard.

Or at least, that's the idea you get at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers conference currently underway at the Cape Town Convention Centre
in South Africa.

However, if Internet access is as imperative for survival as the laptop-armed delegates at the ICANN gathering would have us believe, then what about the
fate of Africa – a continent that statistics say has less than a single computer per thousand people?

A version of this question comes to mind at the Cape Town gathering: Is ICANN – a key organization related to Internet governance – doing enough to include the views of developing countries?

ICANN plays a considerable role in managing the Internet by registering and assigning domain names or Internet addresses – making it possible for users to access the information they need quickly and precisely. Based in Marina del Rey, California, the organization draws its roots from the American group – the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).