New America's Open Technology Institute (OTI) released the first in a planned series of papers Thursday on issues and challenges for policymakers and the public in ICANN’s planned spinoff of its Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions. The paper released Thursday provides basic details on those issues, including ICANN’s history of controlling the IANA functions, NTIA’s oversight role and related domain name system (DNS) policy issues that need to be addressed as work on the transition process continues. Future papers will expand on issues identified in the initial report, OTI said. “We support the U.S. government’s decision” to complete the IANA transition, said OTI Senior Fellow David Post, one of the paper’s authors, in a statement. “But before that happens, key challenges must be addressed to ensure that the DNS continues to run smoothly and that ICANN stays accountable to its many stakeholders and remains focused on technical coordination rather than broader Internet policy issues involving cybersecurity, copyright, online privacy, and the like.” The OTI papers are meant to “shed some light on the complexity of the process and help inform the public discussion that’s happening right now, because getting this transition right is very important -- especially if the United States wants to maintain its credibility in the broader global Internet governance ecosystem,” said OTI Senior Policy Analyst Danielle Kehl, the report’s other author, in a statement.
NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling is to speak at the Internet2 Global Summit Tuesday about the Internet assigned names numbers authority (IANA) process and the continued importance of global Internet governance to the research community, Internet2 said. Strickling’s speech comes days after ICANN’s IANA stewardship cross-community working group (CWG-Stewardship) released its revised draft transition plan proposal for comment. The revised draft addresses several of the criticisms that stakeholders leveled against the CWG-Stewardship’s original draft proposal, which includes claims that the original plan was too bureaucratic (see 1412240048). Strickling was among those who criticized the original CWG-Stewardship proposal (see 1501270042). The revised plan recommends that ICANN create a specific subsidiary, called the Post-Transition IANA, to handle the IANA transition. An ICANN-selected board would govern PTI, while the Customer Standing Committee and the IANA Function Review Team (IFRT) would handle current federal oversight functions, CWG-Stewardship said in the revised plan proposal. The IFRT could propose separating PTI from ICANN entirely under extraordinary circumstances, the revised proposal said. The contents of ICANN’s current IANA contract with the federal government, affirmed in 2009, would become a part of the bylaws for ICANN and IFRT, the revised proposal said. Comments on the revised CWG-Stewardship proposal are due May 20. A separate CWG is anticipated to release a draft proposal on ICANN accountability soon.
ICANN should “change its corporate structure to include a membership that will hold its leadership accountable,” the Global Commission on Internet Governance said in a news release Thursday. GCIG released a report making several recommendations for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition. “Any solution for IANA oversight should apply to all current IANA functions to avoid risk of fragmentation,” the release said. “ICANN’s membership should have the power to recall individual directors and approve changes to bylaws; and the effectiveness of financial transparency and oversight should be strengthened,” it said. The report said the transition’s tentative Sept. 30 deadline isn’t likely to be met, a conclusion shared by many ICANN stakeholders (see 1501230063).
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade’s dismissive rhetoric about the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority cross-community working group (CWG) points to the need for strong oversight of the transition by Congress, said Daniel Castro, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation vice president, in an op-ed for The Hill Tuesday. "There is no one today in the CWG who even understands how the functions work," Chehade said last month at a Domain Name Association event. "I sent my CTO David Conrad to explain to [the CWG] how the system works,” and “no one there even knew that he was talking about." Castro called the comments “disappointing” and said they “show that unless the Internet community, including the U.S. government, demands strong accountability reforms, the ICANN CEO is likely to dismiss these efforts out of hand.” “The greatest concern is that a future CEO or board might take ICANN in an undesirable direction,” said Castro. “‘Trust me’ is not a model for good governance on the Internet or anywhere else.” The CWG met in Istanbul last week to discuss its delayed names proposal (see 1503300057 and 1503170058). The CWG scheduled a 30-day public comment period of its draft proposal, which was originally slated for early April, beginning April 20. ICANN didn’t comment.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition cross-community working group (CWG) saw “significant progress” during its meeting last week in Istanbul, but the “work on the post-transition structural arrangements remains in a developmental stage and there are details to resolve,” an ICANN news release said Monday. “Moreover the proposed structure will need to be reviewed against the CWG-Stewardship principles, amongst other tests and considerations,” it said. ICANN stakeholders told us earlier this month that the Istanbul meeting would be key in determining the progress of the CWG (see 1503170058). The group has delayed its names proposal largely due to the debate over whether the day-to-day operations of the IANA functions should be governed by an internal or an external mechanism. The CWG scheduled a 30-day public comment period of its draft proposal, which was originally slated for early April, beginning April 20, the release said.
Cybersecurity problems are the most pressing issue facing the Internet, said an Internet Society survey. ISOC's survey, released Monday, had 801 responses from the society's six regions. Eight-six percent of respondents said they were ISOC members, and 86 percent said cybersecurity is the most critical issue facing the Internet. Seventy-five percent said making Internet governance “easier to understand” was “extremely” or “very important.”
ICANN’s accountability proposal process started after the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition process, but the latter is making “considerable progress,” NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said in a blog post Thursday, referring to ICANN 52 in Singapore last week (see 1502180034). Strickling said it’s “important” the IANA transition and ICANN accountability work streams “remain in sync.” NTIA will “only consider a coordinated and complete transition plan,” he said. It’s “so important that we get this transition right,” Strickling said. “If it doesn’t take place, we will embolden authoritarian regimes to seek greater government control of the Internet or to threaten to fragment the Internet, which would result in a global patchwork of regulations and rules that stifle the free flow of information.”
NTIA released its first quarterly report on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, as mandated by Congress’ December funding measure. The 12-page report covers IANA-related activities through Jan. 31. Released Wednesday, it highlighted several statements by companies and think tanks that support the goals of the transition, including AT&T, Microsoft and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It said the IANA Coordination Group “hopes” to have the transition proposals consolidated and submitted to NTIA by the end of July. Many in the ICANN community don’t believe the tentative Sept. 30 deadline provides enough time to have the IANA transition proposal finalized (see 1501230063). NTIA said it’s “absolutely critical” that it monitors the transition’s progress at ICANN meetings and by continuing to represent the U.S. on ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee.
Rep. John Shimkus’ Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act (HR-805) is “misguided and hurts the cause he claims to support,” Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said in an email Tuesday. “Delaying this [IANA] transition allows anti-democratic nations to continue to use the IANA contract as a red herring to falsely claim ‘the U.S. government controls the Internet’ and call for a greater role for governmental entities like the United Nations and the ITU,” he said. “Further delaying NTIA’s transition process only strengthens these arguments.” Shimkus, R-Ill., told us Monday that the lack of clarity about the term “multistakeholder community” is one of the primary reasons some lawmakers are skeptical of the transition (see 1502100049). Doyle's comments "suggest we ought to have a greater concern for what Russia and China think than what is in the best interest of the American people and the future of our free and open Internet,” Shimkus emailed Wednesday. “Even now, the fact is that this transition will not move forward until NTIA is satisfied with the multistakeholder proposal," he said. "All my bill asks is that Congress also have an opportunity to review the proposal, through our non-partisan investigative arm, before a final, irreversible decision is made," Shimkus said. "That’s not dilatory, that’s due diligence.”
NetGain, a new open Internet initiative, will launch Wednesday at a Ford Foundation event in New York City. NetGain has the backing of the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation and the Open Society Foundation, a news release said. Participants in Wednesday’s event, which will be webcast, include Gwen Ifill, Washington Week managing editor; Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web Foundation founder; filmmaker Laura Poitras; and Ethan Zuckerman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Civic Media director. NetGain's principles include protecting privacy, transparency and free speech online.