Today I have had the honor to provide the keynote speech at the First Annual .ORG Forum hosted by the Public Internet Registry, in Washington DC. The title of this keynote is “The Future of ICANN” and I am making available a copy of this speech (as well as translations in Spanish, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Chinese , Russian and German) with this blog.

Thinking about this topic has been a wonderful exercise for me, particularly at the start of 2010. As most will know, 2009 was a milestone year for ICANN with the signing of the Affirmation of Commitments with the US Government which signaled, in large part, that ICANN has become a mature organisation and the multi-stakeholder model that supports our work is successful. The Board’s approval of the implementation plan for the IDN ccTLD Fast Track process was a huge step forward in bringing the Internet to those in the world who do not communicate in English.

So, looking forward to 2010 and what it holds in store for ICANN, from my perspective, is laid out in the attached speech. As world businesses, consumers, education providers, banking institutions and the like come to rely on the Internet for their day-to-day business activities and their day-to-day social networking, it becomes more incumbent on ICANN and our community to leverage our unique multi-stakeholder model to ensure that we preserve the security and stability of this precious and dynamic resource. It is also incumbent on us to protect the true magic of the Internet by ensuring that there is only one.