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ICG Seeking Public Input on Key Internet Governance Proposal

31 July 2015

The IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) today released for public comment the proposal [IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal [PDF, 2.2 MB]] for the transition of the stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions from the U. S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to the global multistakeholder community. This presents a seminal opportunity for the public to evaluate the proposal as a whole and how it meets the criteria established by NTIA. The ICG is encouraging the public to review the proposal and share their reactions and comments during the public comment period here.

Following the opening of the 40-day public comment period, the ICG will host two briefing webinars open to the public on Thursday 6 August, 19:00-20:30 UTC and Friday 7 August, 11:00-12:30 UTC.

The transition of IANA's stewardship represents an important Internet governance milestone. The proposal for how to carry out the transition is the result of a tremendous undertaking by the global multistakeholder community, including the operational communities with direct operation or service relationships with the IANA functions as well as global business, civil society, governments, and Internet users. These geographically diverse groups came together to work on this process shortly after NTIA announced its intent to transition its stewardship role in March 20141. The proposal was developed through a transparent community-led process, open to and inclusive of all interested stakeholders.

The proposal combines components related to the three categories of IANA functions – domain names, Internet numbering resources, and protocol parameters – each of which have already been thoroughly and publicly vetted.

"The dedication that the Internet community has exhibited to the IANA stewardship transition is nothing short of remarkable," said Alissa Cooper, Chair of the ICG and member of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) community. "The public comment period presents an opportunity for the public to assess the transition proposal in its entirety and for the ICG to build a public record demonstrating how the proposal meets the expectations set out by the U.S. Government."

"It has been a big undertaking to develop a proposal that meets the criteria set forth by the NTIA," said Patrik Fältström, Vice Chair of the ICG and Chair of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC). "I am confident that after receiving and analyzing the public comments, we will be poised to put this proposal forward to the U.S. Government for review and approval."

"The ICG is looking forward to receiving broad input concerning key questions about the proposal," said Mohamed El Bashir ( محمد البشير), Vice Chair of the ICG and member of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), "The public's input is absolutely crucial to this process."

In parallel to the ICG, a Cross Community Working Group (CCWG-Accountability) was formed to facilitate the process of developing enhancements to ICANN's accountability in light of the transition away from the U.S. Government. The CCWG-Accountability proposal will be available for public comment on Monday, 3 August. The public should direct comments about the Enhancing ICANN Accountability proposal to the CCWG-Accountability and comments about the IANA Stewardship Transition proposal to the ICG.

Webinar Details & How to Attend

The webinars will be run in an Adobe Connect Room on Thursday 6 August, 19:00-20:30 UTC and Friday 7 August, 11:00-12:30 UTC. If you are interested in attending a webinar and would like to receive dial-in details, please send an email to the ICG Secretariat <admin@icgsec.asia> and indicate which webinar you would like to attend. Please note that the webinars will be conducted in English and will be live interpreted in the 5 UN languages plus Portuguese. They will also be recorded and transcribed. Subsequently the transcripts will be translated in the 5 UN languages and Portuguese and posted.

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For further information about the ICG and the IANA Stewardship Transition, please see https://www.ianacg.org or https://www.icann.org/stewardship.

Media Contacts

Alexandra Dans
Communications Manager, LAC
Montevideo, Uruguay
Tel: + 598 95 831 442
Email: alexandra.dans@icann.org

Liana Teo
Head of Communications, APAC
Singapore
Tel: +65 6808 6669
Email: liana.teo@icann.org

Luna Madi
Communications Director, EMEA
London, U.K.
Tel: +44 7780947574
Email: luna.madi@icann.org

Brad White
Communications Director, NA
Washington, D.C.
Tel: +1 202 570 7118
Email: james.cole@icann.org

James Cole
Global Media Coordinator
Washington, D.C.
Tel: +1 202 733 7598
Email: james.cole@icann.org

 

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet's unique identifiers. ICANN doesn't control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn't deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet's naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.


1http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2014/ntia-announces-intent-transition-key-internet-domain-name-functions