Blogs
IANA: Keeping The Ultimate Objective In Mind by Kathryn Brown | 20 January 2016
Significant Changes in Third Proposal on Enhancements to ICANN Accountability by Matthew Shears | 3 December 2015
- CCWG-Accountability Issues Formal Update on Progress Made In and After ICANN54 in Dublin by CCWG Accountability co-Chairs | 15 November 2015
- Post ICANN54: A Glimpse into the 3rd Accountability Proposal by Aarti Bhavana | 5 November 2015
- Governments v. ICANN: The Last Battle Before the IANA Transition by Arun Mohan Sukumar | 27 October 2015
Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi by Aarti Bhavana | 23 October
- Strange but familiar in Dublin by Jari Arkko and Andrew Sullivan | 21 October 2015
- CCWG-Accountability co-Chairs Statement Leading into ICANN54 in Dublin by CCWG co-Chairs | 14 October 2015
- Dublin and Transition by Steve Crocker | 13 October 2015
- Rx for Dublin Progress: Board Transparency, Specificity, and Community Acknowledgement by Philip Corwin | 13 October 2015
- Increasing Community Discussions on Enhancing ICANN Accountability at ICANN54 by Nick Tomasso | 12 October 2015
- Hopes for Dublin by Jordan Carter | 12 October 2015
- ICANN Accountability - the chronology and Dublin thoughts by Jordan Carter | 8 October 2015
- IANA Transition, ICANN Accountability, "Has Always Been About POWER" by John Poole | 1 October 2015
- Get on with it! Uncle Sam's right-hand man schools ICANN powwow by Kieren McCarthy | 26 September 2015
- Here, near the shore of Santa Monica, we see ICANN in its natural habitat – doing nothing by Kieren McCarthy | 25 September 2015
- NTIA Directs Smoke Signals Toward LA by Philip Corwin | 24 September 2015
- China (CAICT) Objects to ICANN CCWG Accountability 2nd Draft Proposal by John Poole | 24 September 2015
- Thoughts Heading into Los Angeles by Steve Crocker | 24 September 2015
- ICANN Accountability Enhancements Key in Moving IANA Transition Forward by Matthew Shears | 24 September 2015
- The Empire Strikes Back: ICANN Accountability at the Inflection Point by Philip Corwin | 23 September 2015
- Reflections on the IANA Stewardship Transition Process by Larry Strickling | 23 September 2015
- THE MYTH OF THE NEW GTLD BOTTOM UP MULTISTAKEHOLDER PROCESS by Avri Doria | 18 September 2015
- Building Momentum: An Update from the CCWG-Accountability co-Chairs | 18 September 2015
- ICANN Board Submits Final Comments to CCWG-Accountability Public Comment by Steve Crocker | 11 September 2015
- Upcoming Comments from the ICANN Board to the ICG and CCWG-Accountability by Steve Crocker | 7 September 2015
- Working Together Through The Last Mile by Steve Crocker | 3 September 2015
- The Latest Update on the Board's Review of the CCWG Proposal by Steve Crocker | 28 August 2015
- The IANA Transition: The Work Ahead | 27 August 2015
- Updating our Community on our Review of the CCWG-Accountability Proposal | 26 August 2015
- IANA Contract Extension The Right Thing to Do | 18 August 2015
- An Update on NTIA's Announcement to Extent IANA Functions Contract | 18 August 2015
- An Update on the IANA Transition by Larry Strickling | 17 August 2015
- Speak Up on the IANA Transition and ICANN Accountability | 7 August 2015
- An Update on IANA Stewardship Discussions | 7 August 2015
- Let Your Voice be Heard on IANA Transition by Larry Strickling | 4 August 2015
- Additional Coordination Through New Transition Facilitation Calls | 16 July 2015
- The CCWG: From Buenos Aires to Paris to Dublin | 15 July 2015
- ICANN accountability, IANA stewardship - what's at stake? | 15 July 2015
- Three key issues for ICANN's Accountability Working Group | 15 July 2015
- Joining the Global Discussion at ICANN 52 | 7 February 2015
- December Monthly Update | 18 December 2015
- October-November Monthly Update | 17 November 2014
- Evaluation of the Enhancing ICANN Accountability Comment Period | 6 October 2014
- September Monthly Update | 26 September 2014
- August Monthly Update | 8 August 2014
Most Recent Blog Update
IANA: Keeping The Ultimate Objective In Mind
Author: Kathryn Brown
Date: 20 January 2016
Later this week, ICANN’s Chartering Organizations will indicate whether they will support the third draft proposal of the CCWG-Accountability Work Stream 1 Recommendations. This is a significant moment in the IANA transition process. Support for the accountability proposal by the ICANN community will mean that we are very close to a point when the transition can move to its next phase.
Since the beginning of this process, the IANA transition has had many moving parts. In its original announcement, NTIA identified what it called “directly affected parties” – each of whom had work to do to develop a consensus proposal on how the transition could take place in a way that upholds the core principles that NTIA set forward.
On the operational side, this work has been completed by the IETF, the RIRs and, for the most part, by the names community.
The remaining piece is to ensure that, post-transition, ICANN is fully accountable to the community it serves. This work has been ably led by the CCWG.
In Dublin, the community reached a milestone inasmuch as it agreed, in concept, to work within a so-called Single Designator Model. It is understood that this governance model can meet the requirements of the community for accountability while having minimal impact on ICANN’s corporate structure.
There is also agreement on a set of community powers “designed to empower the community to hold ICANN accountable for the organization’s Principles”.
In addition, there is general agreement on the need to clarify ICANN’s Mission & core values; to appropriately reaffirm ICANN’s commitment to human rights; and, to discuss the accountability of the Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees.
Finally, in Dublin, the community agreed to a general set of procedural steps for the exercise of the community powers, namely:
Community powers will be exercised through consensus: Engage, Escalate, Enforce.
In short, there appears to be consensus around a governance framework for how accountability will work inside ICANN going forward.
Let’s not lose sight of this considerable progress.
The open questions that remain to be solved have to do the scope of those powers, who exercises these powers, and the implications for ICANN as a corporation. While these issues are by no means trivial, they are solvable, particularly if the parties stay focused and collaborate in good faith.
It strikes me that we are in a place where we need to grab consensus knowing that the community has done the hard work of satisfying the fundamentals of its Charter -- meeting the criteria for success that has been set forth, not just by NTIA, but by and for itself. I was encouraged by Steve Crocker’s blog earlier this week in which he expressed the Board’s commitment to work with the community to get the transition done on time.
For the past few weeks, there have been intense discussions on how to improve the current draft proposal based on community feedback. This is typical in any consensus process but in working collaboratively towards the ultimate objective, we should make sure that the timeframe of the transition is met.
Importantly, while the discussions about accountability are primarily focused on the ICANN community and its processes, the outcome of this is critical for the IANA transition as a whole and for all the directly affected parties to the transition.
Moreover, seeing this transition through, in a timeframe that is realistic in light of the U.S. political environment, matters for the entire multistakeholder ecosystem. We cannot go back – we cannot simply pretend that the past 22 months haven’t changed the landscape for Internet governance. They have. If we, as a community, fail to deliver, there will be ripple effects throughout the IG ecosystem.
But if we succeed, when we succeed, we will have collectively done the right thing for the Internet.