ICANN Board Transmits IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal and Enhancing ICANN Accountability Recommendations to NTIA
As in several ICANN meetings before, the ICANN55 in Marrakech was dominated by the IANA Stewardship Transition. The Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) had transmitted it´s proposal to the global Internet community on February 23. In Marrakech, ICANN´s constituent bodies (SO/AC) had to approve the proposal.
First green lights were given by the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) and the Address Supporting Organization (ASO). By Tuesday, the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) had also approved the proposal and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC).
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CCWG-Accountability proposal approved
On Wednesday the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) approved the proposal at its Council meeting. Thomas Rickert, one of the Co-chairs of the CCWG-Accountability, noted after the voting, that he never enjoyed hearing a “Yes” so much since his wedding day! The Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) was the last of the six Chartering Organizations to approve the final proposal from the CCWG-Accountability. Statements from some stakeholder groups were attached to a number of recommendations. Concerns came from some members of the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) and regarding Board and GAC powers, as well as the drafting procedure for bylaws.
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Final vote from the ccNSO
Like the GNSO, the ccTLDs approved the proposal almost unanimously. Although the approval was to be expected, it was still an enormous relief when the last of the Chartering Organisations voted for the proposal by the CCWG-Accountability. With this result, the door was opened to transmit the proposal to the ICANN Board. On Thursday, ICANN Board Chair, Dr. Stephen D. Crocker finally submitted the plan developed by the international Internet community to the U.S. Government. If finally approved, this will lead to global stewardship of some key technical Internet functions.
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It should not be forgotten that the proposal is still just a framework proposition. It will be crucial that the implementation reflects accurately the intended process. The proposal consists of a set of carefully balanced and complex measures strengthening ICANN and its multistakeholder model, e.g.:
- the restructuring of ICANN
- splitting off IANA into a different organization called Post Transition IANA (PTI)
- the formation of 8 new committees (some of them ad hoc, some of them standing)
- substantial bylaw changes
- the establishment of 7 new mechanism giving the ICANN community more control over the organization
Getting the Universal Acceptance Steering Group ready for outreach
The Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG), in which eco is represented by Lars Steffen, provided an update on activities to date and forthcoming. A surprising number of documents have been completed since Dublin, and the first complete detailed reading of the main technical document was finished on the Sunday. Next up is an evaluation and mitigation of Programming Languages and Frameworks, providing some UA Use Cases and landing pages, translation of core documents, and engaging a global PR company. The UASG, a community group supported by ICANN (and others), flipped its execution approach recently, with the volunteers becoming more supporters than doers. More details of the documents UASG has published can be found in the Documents page of uasg.tech.
The meeting of the Internet Service Providers & Connectivity Providers Constituency Group (ISPCP), in which eco is represented by Wolf-Ulrich Knoben, was also dominated by the discussion on ICANN accountability. Christian Dawson, Co-chair of the UASG, presented the results of current status of the working group and asked the ISPCP members for feedback.
Looking forward and the German Evening
One of the social highlights of the ICANN Meeting was the German Night, jointly hosted by DENIC and eco. In the social event in a charming restaurant with live music performance on stage, international members of eco and the German ICANN Community had a fun evening of chat and friendly exchange. The ICANN Meeting in Marrakech was also the last Meeting for Fadi Chehadé in his role as CEO of ICANN.
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The next ICANN Meeting will take place between 27 and 30 June 2016 in Helsinki.
