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IANA Stewardship Transition Implementation Planning: Taking Stock of the Last Two Months and Looking Forward to 2016

23 December 2015
By Akram Atallah

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The last update I provided was just over two months ago as we were heading into ICANN54 in Dublin. Our goal at that time was to receive feedback and better understand the community’s need for reporting and oversight of implementation planning for the IANA Stewardship Transition. In looking back at our progress since October, we achieved this and much more.

We are now providing monthly status updates on implementation planning efforts to the leadership teams of the CCWG-Accountability, CWG-Stewardship, CRISP Team, IANAPLAN WG, GNSO, ccNSO, IETF, IAB, and RIRs on the Transition Program Facilitation Management calls. Additionally, we have established a reporting cadence with the CWG-Stewardship by providing more detailed implementation planning status updates on the group’s bi-weekly calls. We are also working with all of the operational communities on defining service levels and documenting our relationships with them, as well as on the IANA Intellectual Property Rights. On the CCWG-Accountability side, we look forward to engaging with the group once its Work Stream 1 Recommendations are finalized.

Shortly after ICANN54, we launched a dedicated web page to provide the community with updates on implementation planning activities. We have been building out this web page to provide a more seamless browsing experience, including sort and filter capabilities. Be on the look out for more on this in the coming weeks.

On the U.S. Government side, we have been engaging with NTIA on our planning efforts. The feedback from NTIA has been very helpful in developing our plans and overall timelines to allow ICANN to plan for implementing as early as possible while respecting the current IANA Functions Contract. 

In my pre-ICANN54 blog, I wrote that our assessment showed that we would need four months to complete the IANA Stewardship Transition implementation, assuming the proposals are approved. This timetable has not changed. However, we hope that our continued collaboration with the community, engagement with NTIA, and careful project planning will enable us to complete the necessary implementation as efficiently as possible to meet a conclusion in time for a transition in 2016. We will continue to monitor progress, and regularly report back to the community.

As we head into 2016, our team looks forward to further collaboration with the community toward a successful and on-time transition. 

Happy holidays to those celebrating this season and best wishes into the New Year! 

Authors

Akram Atallah

Former President, Global Domains Division