The first meeting of the PCH Protocols for Policymakers Forum (PfP-1), took place on October 28, 2005 at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City, in conjunction with NANOG 35 and the ARIN XVI Open Policy Meeting. Packet Clearing House would like to thank all PfP participants for the time and effort that they invested in making this first meeting a great success. Special thanks go to PfP-1's invited speakers, whose remarks and presentations helped catalyze an extremely productive day of discussions on many technical factors underlying current Internet governance debates.
Designated Presenters:
Tom Vest, Packet Clearing House (PfP Forum Chair)
Theresa Swinehart, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
Richard Hill, International Telecommunications Union
Richard Lamb, U.S. Department of State
Joe Abley, Internet Systems Consortium
Institutions interested in learning more about hosting or co-sponsoring future PfP events are encouraged to write to pfp-sponsor@pch.net.
The agenda for PfP-1 was organized around the theme The Clash of Administrations?, and featured discussions on two of the Internet's foundational institutions, the system of Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses, and the Domain Name System (DNS). Each of these systems relies on a combination of critical administrative and technological components, and each of these components is now facing new and unprecedented technical and institutional challenges. Do the Internet's current mechanisms of technical coordination represent the best platform for continuing global information economy development, or would the global stakeholder community be better served by a new approach? What are the opportunities and risks associated with gradual evolution versus wholesale restructuring? Brief presentations from leading authorities from the ITU, ICANN, US federal agencies, and major Internet coordination and service provider institutions helped to set the stage for broad-ranging discussions on these topics, and to illuminate some familiar policy interests and trade-offs that are sometimes obscured by the complexities of network technology.
