The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) opened its 29th International Public Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico yesterday.

During the week-long meeting ICANN will address issues like new generic top-level domains, international domain names and how the agency can become more transparent.

"If you are interested in the domain names that can be used on the Internet, if you want to make sure there are enough numbers to allow the Internet to expand, if you care about how the Internet evolves and want to have a say, ICANN meetings are the place for you," said Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN.

"The San Juan meeting gives us an opportunity to talk face to face within the global Internet community, listen to ideas and input, and make sure policies promote the Internet's security and stability. Even if you can't be here in person, you can be part of the meeting with our remote participation website, meeting blogs, and webcasts."

Other issues being discussed include:

Progress on a creating a policy to introduce new generic top-level domains (the part of web addresses after the dot -- like .com or .info)

Update on the testing process of introducing Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) to the Internet.

A tutorial on IPv6 -- a major expansion of the Internet Protocol address space so that the number unique addresses available globally is increased dramatically (from about 4.3 billion available with the current IPv4 to about 340 trillion trillion trillion).

Further discussions of ICANN's Registrar Accreditation Agreements (RAA) and the Accreditation process, arising out of the RegisterFly collapse.

"ICANN's task is unique and these meetings help us make sure we're on the correct path and continue to move forward," Dr Twomey added.

ICANN