January 17, 2000
                        JPNIC Planning International Liaison Working Group


       Establishment of the Internet Governance Study Group


The Internet started in America about thirty years ago as experimental
network and has been expanded by the users who were mainly researchers
and engineers. In the past few years, the number of the Internet users
has been increasing dramatically, and the Internet is now becoming a
part of a global infrastructure used on a daily basis by people
throughout the world.

In this significant movement around the Internet, ICANN, the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, was established on
Sept.30,1998 as the organization which maintains and coordinates the
Internet resources (such as domain names and IP addresses) based on
global consensus.

The Internet has become an integral part of the lives of people in
Japan, and we accordingly believe that JPNIC should not only keep a
close eye on ICANN activities, but also make them reflect the voice of
the ordinary Japanese user. A problem remains, however, in that
sufficient information on ICANN activities is still not widely
available in Japan.

For this reason, JPNIC has established the Internet Governance Study
Group described below to help Japanese people better understand the
work being done by ICANN and to learn more about changes in global
policy on the management of the Internet resources.

It is our hope that in addition to providing up-to-date information on
ICANN we will also stimulate readers to think about how they may go
about participating in ICANN activities. (Information on the schedule
for the first study session and other details is to be provided
separately.)

1.Name
  Internet Governance Study Group (IG-SG)

2.Objectives
 - To provide information on global developments concerning the
   allocation of Internet resources through ICANN and other forums.
 - To increase participants' understanding of the effects that global
   developments have and will have on Japan.
 - To seek the ways to make it possible for people and organizations in
   Japan to participate in the planning of the development of the
   Internet.

3.Activities
 - The study group is to remain active until July 2000.
 - Study group sessions are to be held roughly once per month.

4.Eligibility
 - No requirements are to be placed upon eligibility for participation.

5.Overview of action plan
 - Regular meetings are to be held to study about ICANN, other related
   organizations and the relationship among them.
 - Latest information from ICANN is to be made available on a regular
   basis.

6.Goals and milestones
 - Up-to-date information from ICANN is to be made available on a
   monthly basis together with information on individual topics.
 - February 2000: First study group meeting
   Introductory session: What is ICANN?
 - March 2000: ICANN meeting (Egypt)
 - March 2000: Second study group meeting
        :
        :
 - July 2000: ICANN meeting (Yokohama)

 - Sample topics
  "Current status of .com domain"
  "How to start a register/registry business"
  "When are new gTLDs to become available? "
  "How much does it cost for management of the Internet resourses? "
  "Globalization of IP address policy"
  "'IETF' and 'RFC'"
  "Internet Societal Task Force"

7.Coordinators
 - Takashi Arano, Toshihiro Tsubo, Hirofumi Hotta, Yumi Ohashi

8.Contact
 -International Affair section, JPNIC Secretariat
        icann-sec@nic.ad.jp