Yrjö Länsipuro appointed to the ICANN President’s Strategy Committee

Press release 106/2007
29 May, 2007

Paul Twomey, President of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has invited Ambassador Yrjö Länsipuro to sit on the committee that advises the ICANN President and its international Board of Directors on strategic issues.

Established in 1998 and domiciled in California, ICANN is responsible, among other things, for managing and coordinating the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet, and the root servers serving the Internet, at the highest level. Since the UN’s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), these activities have been a topic of increasing international discussion, with some countries attempting to get them on a state-based level. ICANN’s activities are based at present on a project agreement with the US Department of Commerce. This Memorandum of Understanding is in force until September 2009.

The President’s Strategy Committee, among other things, addresses the possibilities for developing ICANN’s status and activities so that they would respond better to changes in the international environment, help build know-how concerning management of the Internet especially in developing countries, and expand the participation of various actors – e.g. states, the private sector and civil society – in management of the Internet. The results of the Committee’s work thus far are available at http://icann.org/psc#final(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window).

Yrjö Länsipuro coordinates participation in international implementation and follow-up of the results of the UN’s World Summit on the Information Society at the Department for Global Affairs of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He was previously Director General of the Ministry’s Department for Press and Culture, now the Department for Communication and Culture, in 1997–2005 and Counsellor for Press and Cultural Affairs at the Finnish Embassy in Washington, DC in 1992–1997.

Additional information: Ambassador Yrjö Länsipuro, gsm +358 40 754 4448