ICANN, UPU finalise negotiation on .Post

Global Internet coordinating agency, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) have finalized deal for the UPU sponsored .POST Top-Level Domain.

Officials of ICANN made this disclosure at the weekend, said that final approval of the agreement is subject to ICANN’s public comment process, which will commence after the conclusion of ICANN’s conference in the city of Seoul on 30 October 2009, in addition to the final approval of the Board of Directors. ITRealms Online recalls that UPU is in-charge of setting the rules for the universal network of international postal mail exchanges.

Also, a specialized agency of the United Nations, the UPU was established in 1874 and is one of the world’s oldest intergovernmental organizations (IGOs).

And despite ICANN’s relative youth, the internet coordinating agency and UPU have some resemblances, including active participation by representatives of geographically diverse governments and constituencies.

Confirming this, ICANN President, Mr. Rod Beckstrom, noted that both his organization and UPU are governed by a bottom-up process.

“The UPU by its member countries and ICANN by the global Internet community and both organizations serve billions of people globally,” he said. Beckstrom stressed that the agreement brought to conclusion the negotiation that enables both organizations to recognize one another’s traditional autonomy, mission, and core values.

“The agreement represents a significant accomplishment for the UPU, ICANN, and the global Internet community. This validates the ICANN model for fostering expansion of and innovation in the domain name space,” he said.

Additionally, ICANN boss pointed out that UPU has helped mark out a path for other IGOs to sponsor their own top-level domains and helps in expansion of the multi-stakeholder relationships in the IGO field.

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