SUMMARY

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the non-profit corporation established by the US Department of Commerce in 1998, is responsible for centralized technical coordination functions of the Internet.

ICANN is the non-profit, private-sector coordinating body acting in the global public interest. Responsible for managing and coordinating the Domain Name System (DNS) to ensure that it continues to function effectively; ICANN oversees the distribution of unique numeric IP addresses and domain names.

ICANN's mission is to protect the stability, integrity, and utility of the DNS and the one authoritative root on behalf of the global Internet community. It is a consensus development body established to formulate policies relating to the root and the DNS. These policies include those that allow the orderly introduction of new TLDs, such as .travel.

The first Top Level Domain names .com, .net, and .org served their purpose well. However, with the explosive growth in its usage, cybersquatting, domain hijacking, incorrect WHOIS data, and other inhibiting issues have also grown with the Internet. Therefore, the addition of new TLDs is intended to alleviate the issues noted above, and to take the Net to the next generation of navigation.

For more information about Tralliance Corporation’s participation within ICANN, please review ICANN Reports and Remarks.