The public is invited to a forum offering insight into the Internet and its increasing capabilities in today's society from a leading expert.

The Ministry of Labour and Immigration and the Ministry of Environment, Telecommunications and E-Commerce announced the event, which will take place at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI).

Jacob Malthouse, of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), will speak today at 2.30 p.m.

Prior to joining ICANN, he was head of investment for the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and co-ordinated one of the largest global studies of financial materiality of environmental, social and Governance issues.

ICANN, an internationally-organised, non-profit corporation, is responsible for Internet Protocol addresses (IP) and allocates space, protocol identifier assignment and as generic domains such as .com and .org addresses.

Mr. Malthouse's report will cover the history, growth and structure of the Internet as a whole and its role relating to addressing systems, as well as their impact on the entire service and information industries.