Wednesday, September 30, 2009

U.S. Gov't, ICANN Extend Relationship

The Obama administration and the California entity that administers the world's Web addresses inked a deal late Tuesday to extend the formal relationship between the U.S. government and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers hours before an existing contract was set to expire. Under the so-called "affirmation of commitments," ICANN promises to remain a U.S.-based nonprofit and continue its focus on transparency and accountability.

The four page document, which was released Wednesday morning, creates expert panels that will conduct regular reviews of ICANN's work in several areas: network security and stability; the evolution of generic domains such as .com and .net as well as domains not based on the English alphabet; and the continuance of a public database of Web site owners. An accountability panel -- the only one required to have a U.S. government representative -- is also set up under the plan.

In the months leading up to the pact, lawmakers offered a range of recommendations for preserving the link between the ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Among the most prescient was an August letter from Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va.

They urged Commerce Secretary Locke to press for a set of enduring principles to "place beyond doubt the value of the current [relationship]" and prevent any one entity from controlling the underpinnings of the Internet. ICANN Vice President Paul Levins said Tuesday that is precisely what the new agreement, which does not have an end date, is designed to accomplish.

Some viewed the repetitive renewal approach, which ICANN has operated under since its inception more than a decade ago, as noncommittal to the organization's private sector-led model. The new deal is a "definitive vote of confidence," Levins said. "This is not Independence Day for ICANN -- it's the day when the vision the U.S. government had in 1996 has materialized," he said.

ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who took the reins in June, said the arrangement strikes the right balance between his group's maturing global presence while retaining a "much lighter weight" affiliation with the U.S. government. Beckstrom, who previously headed the Homeland Security Department's National Cybersecurity Center, said he believes the pact will be warmly received on Capitol Hill.

The timing of the deal could not be more appropriate, he added. On Oct. 1, 1969, two computers that were miles apart in California labs connected for the first time through the early network from which today's Internet evolved. "Exactly 40 years later the U.S. government is inviting the rest of the world in for more participation in ICANN's oversight and review," Beckstrom said.

The NTIA-ICANN announcement "fulfills a long-standing objective of the original formation of ICANN: to create an organization that can serve the world's interest in a robust, reliable and interoperable Internet," said Vint Cerf, who is widely referred to as the father of the Internet. Verisign CEO Mark McLaughlin lauded the agreement for allowing more international participation in policy creation at ICANN.