ICANN64, an international Internet-related conference attended by 2,000 participants from 100 countries, was held at Kobe Portopia Hotel in Chuo-ku, Kobe. The conference took place over six days from March 9 to March 14. ICANN—abbreviated from Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers—is an American non-profit corporation that manages Internet resources worldwide, such as domain names and IP addresses, and holds international conferences three times a year. This year, KCGI participated in the conference as an operator of the ".kyoto" domain.
The conference began with preliminary events on the 9th and 10th followed by a welcome ceremony on the morning of the 11th. On the morning of the 13th, a report on Japanese city domain names was presented at a subcommittee meeting on geographical domain names (city names). Following a statistical report on the sales and prices of the ".osaka" domain and the number of registrants on the ".tokyo" domain, Dr. Kenji Imai (Deputy Director of the Cyber Kyoto Laboratory (CKL), KCGI) reported on the current status of ".kyoto" after which a lively discussion ensued. The .kyoto domain is limited to companies and local residents based in Kyoto Prefecture and operates as a top-level domain through the collaborations of industry, government, and academia such as economic organizations, companies, local governments, and educational institutions. This has attracted great interest from people overseas.
On the evening of the 13th, a joint subcommittee meeting hosted by Dr. Toshiaki Tateishi, a professor at KCGI, was held by ISPCP (Internet Service Providers & Connectivity Providers) and JAIPA (Japan Internet Providers Association). Professor Tateishi supervised the panel discussion about Website/DNS Blocking and Filtering. Last October 10th, he had also presented a digest of the Symposium on Pirated Site Blocking from an international standpoint at the main hall of the KCG Kyoto Ekimae Campus. ICANN's top officials and Japanese Internet service providers engaged in heated discussions on Internet operations and security, and deepened exchanges during the reception.
