- DENIC eG, eco Association and the City of Hamburg as joint hosts
- ICANN coordinates the administration of names and numbers on the Internet
- Renewed application after meeting cancelled due to pandemic in 2020
Important decisions on core functions of the Internet could be taken in Germany in 2023 when eco – Association of the Internet Industry and DENIC eG envisage to host the 78th meeting of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) from 21 to 26 October, together with the City of Hamburg. The organisations handed over the application today at a virtual event. ICANN is a non-profit organisation responsible for the worldwide coordination of unique names and IP numbers on the Internet, ensuring the secure and stable operation of the Domain Name System (DNS).
“Since the conference in Berlin in 1999, this will be the first time in over 20 years that an ICANN conference will take place in Germany”, says Oliver Süme, Chair of the Board of eco – Association of the Internet Industry. “With eco, DENIC and the City of Hamburg, strong partners from business and politics have joined forces to make this goal a reality.”
ICANN coordinates the administration of names and numbers on the Internet
For the Internet to function, domain names and IP numbers must be unique worldwide. The central task of ICANN, founded in 1998, is to ensure this in cooperation with the global Internet community. As a result, Internet users all over the world can, for example, enter www.denic.de into their browsers and thus reach DENIC’s website.
“An open, free and secure Internet is a strategic priority for DENIC. The commitment of the German Internet community will be honoured by an ICANN Meeting in Hamburg. This offers a good opportunity to contribute German and European views on an even broader basis,” says DENIC Board Member Andreas Musielak. DENIC manages Germany's top-level domain .de, which is currently the second-largest country-targeted name space on the Internet with more than 17 million registered domains worldwide.
The City of Hamburg welcomes the international Internet community
In addition to country-code domains, there are also so-called generic domain extensions, including suffixes with a geographical reference, which have been available for several years. The City of Hamburg actively supported the registration of the top-level domain .hamburg, so that, for example, the website of the Hamburg police force can be reached at www.polizei.hamburg.
ICANN meetings are held three times a year, each time in a different city around the world. The 78th ICANN Annual General Meeting in question is scheduled to take place in Hamburg from 21 to 26 October 2023. The organisers expect around 2,500 participants from research, the tech community, politics, business and civil society to attend: “Hamburg stands out as an innovative and smart city. But there is not only a lot of professional and technical know-how in town, but also a new congress center awaiting the participants. Therefore Hamburg is an excellent venue for such an important meeting of the international internet community,” says Senator Westhagemann, Minister for economy and innovation, Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
Hamburg had already been planned as the venue for the ICANN Annual General Meeting in 2020. However, the conference was then hosted virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.