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Monthly Update by Theresa Swinehart

17 November 2014
By
Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy

Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy. In this role, she works with the community, contracted parties, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure broad and inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking through ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and effective, accountable policy implementation. Her responsibilities include policy implementation, review operation, and cross-functional strategic initiatives such as ICANN’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. An expert in global Internet governance, Theresa also serves as co-deputy to the President and CEO. Her extensive industry experience, including nearly 20 years as a key contributor to ICANN’s growth and development, gives her a valuable perspective on how ICANN organization can work efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the global Internet community.

Theresa rejoined ICANN after three years as Executive Director of Global Internet Policy at Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues as well as stakeholder and policy engagement. Prior to this, she served as ICANN’s Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading a team responsible for partnership reform, global engagement and outreach, and the participation in international forums. Before ICANN, Theresa was Director of Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for such issues as Internet service provider liability, data protection, and participation in Internet-related forums, including the formation of ICANN. 

Theresa has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis, a graduate degree in international studies from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a juris doctorate from American University. She served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees and Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. Theresa began her career in international human rights. She is fluent in German and is conversant in French.

In addition to the U.N. six languages, this content is also available in

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First things first, thank you to all of you who joined us at ICANN 51 in Los Angeles! Whether you did so in person or as a remote participant, you may have noticed the evolution in both the IANA Stewardship Transition and Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance processes. There's been a distinct shift in conversation over the past month from process to substance, a validation of community achievement in these two critical endeavors.

IANA Stewardship Transition

As soon as the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) published its Request for Proposals (RFP), the operational communities of IANA began developing their responses.

The Names community established a Cross Community Working Group (CWG) to develop a proposal on naming related functions. The group, chaired by the GNSO's Jonathan Robinson and ccNSO's Lise Fuhr, includes 19 members and 84 participants. Its charter [PDF, 156 KB] has been adopted by the ccNSO, SSAC, GNSO, ALAC and GAC, and ICANN is providing staff support to the working group as well. The CWG held its first face-to-face meeting at ICANN 51, and is holding its next face-to-face meeting to develop and discuss its draft proposal on the 19th and 20th of this month in Frankfurt.

The five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) who make up the Numbers community are currently consulting within their respective regions. To coordinate the various proposals that will emerge from these consultations, the Number Resource Organization (NRO) created a Consolidated RIR IANA Stewardship Proposal Team (CRISP) to produce a unified response to the ICG's RFP. A Timeline for the RIRs Engagement in the IANA Stewardship Transition Process can be found here.

Lastly, in the Protocol Parameters community, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has established the IANAPLAN Working Group (IANAPLAN WG). The IANAPLAN WG has adopted an Internet Draft as a basis for developing a response to the ICG's request for proposals and has already developed a draft response to the RFP. This draft proposal was discussed in more depth at their IETF 91 meeting in Honolulu from November 9-14.

The ICG has requested that all three of the community proposals be submitted by January 15, 2015.

As for the ICG itself, it is developing a set of FAQs about its work, and is in the final stages of selecting an independent secretariat.

Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance

As was noted in my previous blog, ICANN launched a 21-day open comment period to ensure that as many stakeholders as possible could review, post questions and comment on the Enhancing ICANN Accountability and Governance process posted on August 14th. ICANN received 17 comments and, based on that community input, published a Revised Enhancing ICANN Accountability process.

The strong community request for integrating the originally- proposed dual structure Cross Community Group and Coordination Group into a single Cross Community Working Group (CCWG) was recognized, and the process was revised to incorporate that feedback.

In addition, input over the course of the comment period suggested that the CCWG have two work streams:

  • Work Stream 1 will focus on mechanisms enhancing ICANN accountability that must be in place or committed to within the time frame of the IANA Stewardship Transition; and

  • Work Stream 2 will focus on addressing accountability topics for which a timeline for developing solutions and full implementation may extend beyond the IANA Stewardship Transition.

A Drafting Team for the Accountability CCWG has been formed with Supporting Organization and Advisory Committee representatives from the GNSO, ccNSO, ASO and ALAC, in addition to a non-SO/AC representative from the broader ICANN community.

Recognizing the need to move this process forward quickly, the Drafting Team has met twice a week since ICANN 51, and on November 3rd, distributed a Charter for adoption by chartering organizations. The final version and working drafts of the Charter are located on the Wiki.

The GNSO elected to adopt the CCWG charter on November 13th, and each SO/AC is expected to consider the proposed Charter during their upcoming November meeting(s). The CCWG will commence with its deliberations in late November or early December.

A call for volunteers to join the CCWG will be launched so that anyone interested in this effort may join and participate. Additionally, all members of the group formerly known as the Cross Community Group will be added to the CCWG as "participants", with the exception of those appointed by chartering organizations to serve as "members".

As you can see, both processes are now in full swing. Continue to check the ICANN website, follow ICANN on Twitter, or like ICANN on Facebook for immediate updates.

And again, please join the numerous community discussions taking place: https://www.icann.org/en/stewardship/community.

-TS

Authors

Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy
Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy

Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy. In this role, she works with the community, contracted parties, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure broad and inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking through ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and effective, accountable policy implementation. Her responsibilities include policy implementation, review operation, and cross-functional strategic initiatives such as ICANN’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. An expert in global Internet governance, Theresa also serves as co-deputy to the President and CEO. Her extensive industry experience, including nearly 20 years as a key contributor to ICANN’s growth and development, gives her a valuable perspective on how ICANN organization can work efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the global Internet community.

Theresa rejoined ICANN after three years as Executive Director of Global Internet Policy at Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues as well as stakeholder and policy engagement. Prior to this, she served as ICANN’s Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading a team responsible for partnership reform, global engagement and outreach, and the participation in international forums. Before ICANN, Theresa was Director of Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for such issues as Internet service provider liability, data protection, and participation in Internet-related forums, including the formation of ICANN. 

Theresa has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis, a graduate degree in international studies from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a juris doctorate from American University. She served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees and Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. Theresa began her career in international human rights. She is fluent in German and is conversant in French.

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