IP: : ICANN asks Commerce Department to begin DNS transition

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

I suspect I will get some notes re this. I will forward some of the reasoned ones. djf

                 ICANN asks Commerce Department to begin DNS transition

LOS ANGELES, November 6, 1998 -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) today advised the Department of Commerce that it
is ready to negotiate the transition agreement transferring Domain Name
System administration from U.S. Government control. The transition is
expected to last about a year, during which time the Initial Board of ICANN
will create a permanent  governance structure with members and
member-elected directors.

  ICANN is a private non-profit corporation, managed by an international
board, that was expressly formed to take over the responsibility for duties
now performed under government contract by the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA) and other entities. The Domain Name System governs the
routing of World Wide Web pages, electronic mail and other communications
over the Internet.

  The Commerce Department recognized ICANN as the appropriate entity with
which to negotiate a transition agreement last month in a letter from J.
Beckwith Burr, Acting Associate Administrator of the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), but raised
concerns about certain issues that ICANN has now responded to.

  "The bylaws we adopted and submitted today were arrived at after careful
evaluation of Ms. Burr's letter, extensive consultations with the Boston
Working Group and the Open Root Server Confederation, the two groups
specifically mentioned by the NTIA in its letter, and discussions with many
other interested groups and individuals," said Esther Dyson, ICANN's
Interim Chairman. "Mike Roberts, our Interim President, the other members
of the board, and I all recognize, however, that such consultations must
and will continue as we move through this long, unprecedented and intensely
important process. We're all determined to get this right."

  The board has already announced a series of open meetings throughout the
world where members of the Internet community and others can speak directly
to ICANN's interim board and management. The first of these is scheduled
for November 14 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Representatives of the board
will attend a meeting of the European Panel of Participants in Brussels on
November 25. The board also hopes to hold an open meeting in Asia soon.
Details on the Cambridge meeting are posted at www.iana.org.

  The bylaws submitted today include modified or additional language
designed to satisfy specific structural concerns noted by the government.
These changes ensure the following:

-- ICANN will be a membership organization, with Board members elected from
four separate membership pools -- three specialized Supporting
Organizations and an At Large membership;

-- ICANN will be financially and otherwise accountable to those it serves;

-- ICANN's decision-making will be fully transparent, with minutes of each
ICANN Board, Supporting Organization or committee meeting to be publicly
posted within 21 days following every meeting;
-- The Initial Board will create a Conflicts of Interest policy covering
all ICANN institutions, including the Supporting Organizations;
-- ICANN's permanent governance structure will be globally representative; and

-- ICANN will respect each nation's sovereign control over its individual
Top Level Domain.

     In the letter transmitting the bylaws as formally adopted by ICANN to
the Commerce Department, Interim Chairman Dyson pointed out that these
bylaws "will have to be changed to reflect the work of the Initial Board
and to create the permanent governance structure of ICANN.  We will
carefully consider any and all suggestions for improvement as we move
forward in this process.  Nobody should operate under the illusion that any
issue has  been resolved 'once and for all.'  Similarly, nobody should feel
that issues that are important to them and have not been addressed to their
satisfaction cannot be revisited.  The process is just beginning."

                  #   #   #

Contacts:
  Esther Dyson, Interim Chairman, +1(212)924-8800, edyson () edventure com
  Michael M. Roberts, Interim President and CEO, +1(650)854-2108,
mmr () darwin ptvy ca us






Fred Rackmil, Rackmil Associates
fred () rackmil com
phone 212-421-0044, fax 212-421-0213
444 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10022

_____________________________________________________________________
David Farber         
The Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems
University of Pennsylvania 
Home Page: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~farber