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Blogs

 

Most Recent Blog Update 

IANA CONTRACT EXTENSION THE RIGHT THING TO DO

Author: Carl Schonander

 

Yesterday, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it is extending the contract between the Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to perform the Internet Assigned Names Authority (IANA) functions.  The contract will be extended by one year from September 30, 2015 to September 30, 2016. 

Briefly, the IANA functions relate to the Domain Name Server (DNS) system, which connects names and numbers.  Although this is sometimes described as a “clerical” function, it is critical to the continued seamless functioning of the Internet. 

SIIA welcomed the March 14, 2014 NTIA announcement to transition the IANA functions to multistakeholder control.  At the same time, we strongly supported the Administration’s insistence that the conditions it articulated for the transfer to be met.  SIIA also considers the Congress’s oversight role to be important, which is why we support the proposed DOTCOM Act.  The bill requires the NTIA conditions to be met, as well as for a number of broad ICANN accountability reforms to be included in ICANN’s bylaws. 

The IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) and the Cross Community Working Group (CCWG) have developed proposals which make substantial progress in addressing the NTIA conditions.   However, more time is clearly needed in order to review and perhaps further develop these proposals.   Currently, for instance, there are important discussions on the role of governments (the GAC) with respect to its relationship to the ICANN Board, as well as continued debate on the jurisdiction (California) under which ICANN operates.  These issues need to be resolved prior to the transition. 

For all of these reasons, it was prudent for NTIA to give the multistakeholder community more time to create arrangements, which will be critical for global commerce in the coming years.  But by no means does this action indicate a lack of commitment to this transition.  The Internet is a critical resource that has developed into the wonderful infrastructure it is through a unique distributed governance arrangement best known as the multistakeholder model.  SIIA remains committed to that vision. 

Updating our Community on our Review of the CCWG-Accountability Proposal

Original link: https://www.icann.org/news/blog/updating-our-community-on-our-review-of-the-ccwg-accountability-proposal

 

The Board is deeply engaged in reviewing the CCWG-Accountability proposal and has actively participated in the process. Consistent with our commitment to transparency, we would like to share with the Community the steps in our review process.

Last week, the ICANN Board submitted a preliminary set of comments to the CCWG-Accountability Public Comment forum. The Board remains committed to engaging and working with the CCWG on solutions to address concerns raised in its preliminary set of comments.

A subset of ICANN Board Members and Staff Members have been meeting in Washington, DC on Tuesday and Wednesday this week to further consider the CCWG proposal and commence a review of an impact analysis from ICANN's external counsel. As part of this meeting, the group held a call together with the CCWG Chairs. For full transparency and to clarify the basis for the review points and comments,ICANN will share the impact analysis and publish it in the CCWG Public Comment forum. The Board welcomes feedback from the CCWG on the impact analysis as it finalizes its responses to the CCWG proposal in the Public Comment forum.

Next week, consistent with the CCWG request, the Board will have an open teleconference with the CCWG to help inform the Board's development of its comments to be submitted into the Public Comment forum before the close of the comment period on 12 September. Call details will be announced so that anyone in the community may participate.

Finally, in light of the importance of these discussions, we propose that the CCWG-Accountability hold a public meeting in Los Angeles in late September to continue the dialogue with the Board on the CCWG proposal.

As part of the ICANN community, we will continue to work constructively to help the CCWG finalize the proposal to achieve a successful IANA Stewardship transition and an ICANN with enhanced accountability. We remain appreciative of the CCWG's valuable work.