Communiqué CENTR 21st General Assembly and Annual General Assembly

CENTR members from 27 different countries, plus observers and invited guests, convened in Salzburg, Austria on the 19th and 20th February 2004 for the 21st General Assembly and Annual General Assembly.

CENTR members from 27 different countries, plus observers and invited guests, convened in Salzburg, Austria on the 19th and 20th February 2004 for the 21st General Assembly and Annual General Assembly.

The group welcomed the Libyan Registry NIC.LY as new full members, the Public Interest Registry (.org) as new associate members, and the regional African ccTLD organisation AFTLD as new observers.

The meeting thanked Sabine Dolderer (.de) and Barbara Povse-Golob (.si) for having served the CENTR board during the past years and welcomed Marcel Schneider (.ch) and Michael Haberler (.at) as new board members. Marcel Schneider will act as treasurer.

Thorough discussions were held on outstanding ICANN and IANA issues. Invited guests that helped guide the discussion were Paul Verhoef (ICANN Vice President of Policy Development Support) and Doug Barton (Manager of IANA). Both answered questions, previously submitted by CENTR members, and engaged in a lengthy and fruitful discussion. Both speakers declared themselves willing to take in CENTR member's thoughts and input on the matters addressed.

The CENTR secretariat presented a draft document that deals with the privacy considerations associated with WHOIS. Masayuki Matsui, architect of several WHOIS analyses conducted by the OECD, gave an overview of his research that helped guide discussion on the subject.

The Governmental Advisory Committee's ccTLD liaison, Martin Boyle of the UK Government, gave an update on the redrafting of the GAC principles and how the comments from CENTR had been received.

The members further received presentations from .at on the Austrian Registry, RIPE NCC on their development of an organisation of RIRs, and an update on European Commission issues - including .eu - from retiring EU ccTLD liaison George Papapavlou.