A forum host poses questions from an engaged audience to Kurt Pritz at the end of his presentation at the newdomains.org conference.
ICANN Board Chairman Steve Crocker delivered a keynote speech to a full audience at the NewDomains.org conference in Munich on Monday, 26 September, 2011.
"The New gTLD Program was designed to make it easier for TLD operators and law enforcement to work effectively together," Crocker told attendees in Munich.
26 September, Munich -- ICANN Senior Vice President Kurt Pritz said the potential benefit of the new generic Top-Level Domain program is aimed at increasing choice and competition for all Internet users and not merely those who apply for a new gTLD.
"The new gTLD program is intended to bring benefit to the billions of Internet users who do not apply for a TLD," said Pritz.
Pritz, who heads up ICANN's new gTLD program, made the comments while addressing the opening session of the newdomains.org conference today in Munich, Germany. ICANN Board Chairman Steve Crocker also spoke.
The ICANN executive said the new program is being implemented only after years of debate, discussion and consideration. He said the program is the result of 47 comment periods which included over 2400 comments and analyses. There were 55 explanatory memoranda or independent reports and 7 drafts of the Applicant Guidebook.
Board Chairman Steve Crocker also addressed the conference as part of ICANN's global communications campaign to increase awareness of new gTLDs. He told the conference that every organization should consider for itself whether applying for a new gTLD is in its best interest.
Crocker said new gTLDs are intended to vastly improve online security, saying, "The New gTLD Program was designed to make it easier for TLD operators and law enforcement to work effectively together."
He said the new program will also make it much harder on cyber-squatters.
After his speech, Crocker was interviewed by Helmut Martin-Jung of major German newspaper, Suddeutsch Zeitung.
ICANN will maintain its involvement throughout 2011 in events all around the world, in order to help a wide global audience become aware of the coming new gTLDs. Watch ICANN.ORG and the "Reports from Events" page to stay up to date.