ICANN selected seven people to be key holders and gave each one an actual key to Internet. It selected seven more people to be backup keyholders: so total 14 people. The physical keys unlock safety deposit boxes stashed around the world. Inside those boxes, there are smart key cards. If they all combine seven smart key cards together then they will have the “master key.” The master key may be a computer code or a password that can be used to access the ICANN database.

ICANN has released the list of trusted community representatives who will participate in the root key generation and signing ceremonies, the first of which will take place tomorrow, June 16, in Culpeper, Virginia.  (An FAQ on the trusted community representatives can be found here.)  Following is the complete list, although ICANN notes that backups may be called in if needed:
Crypto Officers for the US East Coast Facility

• Alain Aina, BJ
• Anne-Marie Eklund Löwinder, SE
• Federico Neves, BR
• Gaurab Upadhaya, NP
• Olaf Kolkman, NL
• Robert Seastrom, US
• Vinton Cerf, US

Crypto Officers for the US West Coast Facility

• Andy Linton, NZ
• Carlos Martinez, UY
• Dmitry Burkov, RU
• Edward Lewis, US
• João Luis Silva Damas, PT
• Masato Minda, JP
• Subramanian Moonesamy, MU

Recovery Key Share Holders

• Bevil Wooding, TT
• Dan Kaminsky, US
• Jiankang Yao, CN
• Moussa Guebre, BF
• Norm Ritchie, CA
• Ondřej Surý, CZ
• Paul Kane, UK

Backup Crypto Officers

• Christopher Griffiths, US
• Fabian Arbogast, TZ
• John Curran, US
• Nicolas Antoniello, UY
• Rudolph Daniel, UK
• Sarmad Hussain, PK
• Ólafur Guðmundsson, IS

Backup Recovery Key Share Holders

• David Lawrence, US
• Dileepa Lathsara, LK
• Jorge Etges, BR
• Kristian Ørmen, DK
• Ralf Weber, DE
• Warren Kumari, US