Few cities have been as successful as Los Angeles in branding themselves as major technology hubs. Silicon Beach, on LA’s Westside, is Silicon Valley’s hipper sister, home to over 500 tech startups, with incubators and accelerators thriving alongside industry giants like Google, Netflix, Yahoo, and Amazon.

According to Amplify, an LA-based incubator, Los Angeles has drawn more outside investment in tech than any other U.S. city, attracting more than $18 billion since 2006. Consequently, LA is ranked first in the growth of local gaming, e-commerce, and online media industries. The same report ranks Los Angeles as the third leading entrepreneurial hub in the world for startups.

But the seeds for all of these companies, who depend in some way on the global internet, were planted in Los Angeles as far back as the 1960s. Engineers at both UCLA and the Information Sciences Institute at USC played key roles in computer networking innovations that became the global internet. In fact, the first electronic message sent between computers originated from UCLA on October 29, 1969.

Not only can Los Angeles justifiably call itself the birthplace of the internet, but it is also home to what is arguably the most important global organization keeping the internet together: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

Not only can Los Angeles justifiably call itself the birthplace of the internet, but it is also home to what is arguably the most important global organization keeping the internet together: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN has been headquartered in Los Angeles, between the bustling neighborhoods of Playa del Rey and Culver City, for nearly 20 years.

ICANN is an international non-profit organization with fewer than 400 employees, but it supports a global community of thousands of internet stakeholders who  develop policy on the internet’s addressing systems—including addressing systems like domain names for website addresses and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. The reason this is such a big deal is that every address must be unique, whether for a website or a connected device. That’s billions of unique addresses.

ICANN administers a system that works in the blink of an eye to accurately navigate the web. This system allows all of us to connect to each other and the information, ideas, or entertainment we seek.

In addition to administering the system, ICANN facilitates its evolution by convening volunteers and experts to work on a range of innovations, such as web addresses expressed in diverse alphabets to enable the next billion users to connect in their own languages. It also helps advance systems to promote security and resilience in the Domain Name System (DNS).

At a time when so many internet related issues seem fraught with controversy, it is nice to know that, for over 20 years, a system of global consensus on the internet’s underlying address system continues to function.

The volunteers participating in ICANN are internet stakeholders from diverse sectors and global regions. They hail from academia, business, government, and civil society, and include technologists, linguists, rights advocates, and even individual end users. They dedicate their time to keeping the internet secure, stable, and interoperable, while working to shape its future.

At a typical ICANN Public Meeting, held three times per year, over 2,000 volunteers—diverse stakeholders from around 160 countries—will spend a week hashing out complex issues in around 300 separate sessions. Government officials, business executives, activists, and tech geeks engage on equal footing for the good of the most important global resource ever created by humans.

At a time when so many internet related issues seem fraught with controversy, it is nice to know that, for over 20 years, a system of global consensus on the internet’s underlying address system continues to function.

It is only fitting that ICANN, the convener of people who power the global internet, be situated in a global mecca for tech companies, startups, and creative ideas.

It is only fitting that ICANN, the convener of people who power the global internet, be situated in a global mecca for tech companies, startups, and creative ideas. In order to ensure the continued growth of the digital economy, not only for Los Angeles, but on a national and international scale, it’s vital that individuals, businesses, and organizations be involved in the internet governance community.

Los Angeles should be proud of the platform it continues to provide for the world. The astounding growth of the internet owes a great deal to the pioneers and the many active stakeholders who continue to work for, and participate in, ICANN.

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Christopher Mondini is a Pacific Council member and vice president of global stakeholder engagement in North America at ICANN.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.