Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

1
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers

• African Regional Conference for the WSIS
• Internet Governance
• 28January-4 February - Accra, Ghana
• Theresa Swinehart, Global Partnership Manager

2
What is ICANN responsible for?

• ICANN is responsible for the global technical
  self-management of the Internets unique
  identifiers
• ICANN is dedicated to
• Preserving the operational stability of the
  Internet
• To promoting competition
• To achieving broad representation of global
  Internet communities
• And to developing policy appropriate to its
  mission through bottom-up, consensus-based
  processes

3
What ICANN does not do

• Content on the Internet
• Spam
• Financial transactions online
• Consumer Protection Law
• Privacy Law
• Data Protection Law
• Intellectual Property Law
• E-commerce, e-education, e-government, etc.

4
Stability and security with open architecture
5
Self-management of these resources has allowed
the global Internet to go from this
6
And this
7
PRINCIPLES OF OPERATIONS

• Contribute to stability and security of the
  unique identifiers system and root management
• Promote competition and choice for registrants
  and other users
• Forum for multi-stakeholder bottom-up development
  of related policy
• Ensuring on a global basis an opportunity for
  participation by all interested parties

8
International model of self-governance and
self-management, and unique value system

• ICANN is a unique organisation designed to
  operate in the new global environment
• Accomplishments - a few examples
• 20 billion DNS resolutions per day and growing.  
• A US1 billion annual reduction in domain
  registration fees.
• Guidelines for implementation of
  Internationalised Domain Names (IDN)
• The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
  (UDRP).
• Streamlined inter-registrar domain name
  transfers.
• Increased the number of new Top Level Domains
• Recognition of LACNIC and AfriNIC

9
A Closer look at one area of success

• ICANN successful in changing the market structure
  for the registration of generic TLDs
• A US1 billion annual reduction in domain
  registration fees
• Competition in the registrar business
• The market competition for generic domain name
  (gTLD) registrations established by ICANN has
  lowered domain name costs by 80, with savings
  for both consumers and businesses.

10
Market share of Registrars for .com/.net .org,
1996-2004
Percent
Others
Bulk Register
Enom
Go Daddy Software
Melbourne IT
Tucows
Register.com
Network solutions
11
Stakeholders in the Domain Name System
Business, civil society and academia
Government and inter-government agencies
Technical bodies and organisations
Coordination Collaboration Cooperation
12
Stakeholders in the Domain Name System
Government and inter-government agencies
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD)
International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
Inter-American Telecommunications Union (CITEL)
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
UN Economic, Social and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO)
New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD)
African Telecommunications Union (ATU)
European Union (EU)
Commonwealth Telecommunications Oragnisation
Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie
Individual governments are also grappling with
how to address new information society issues
that cross over many government departments,
foreign and domestic policy, cultural
distinctions, economic development and similar
public policy challenges
13
Stakeholders in the Domain Name System
Business, civil society and academia
Business organizations have an inherent interest
in contributing to the Internets growth and
potential
Civil society organizations, from all parts of
the world and from all aspects of society, remain
committed to the potential of the Internet for
the needs of civil society
The academic community, regardless of location,
has played and will always play an important role
in the Internet
14
Stakeholders in the Domain Name System
Technical bodies and organisations
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
(ETSI)
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Forum
Internet Society (ISOC)
Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
Domain name registrars
Regional Internet number Registries (RIRs)
Security and technical experts
International Organization for Standardization
(ISO)
ENUM Forum
IPv6 Forum
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
(IEEE)
Space research agencies
gTLD and ccTLD registries
Internet Service Providers
15
Before ICANN, these stakeholders competed for
influence over the Domain Name and IP Addressing
systems
16
Within ICANN, all stakeholders work
collaboratively in the policy structure
President/ CEO
Board of Directors
Governmental Advisory Committee GAC
At-large Advisory Committee ALAC
Country Code Names Supporting Organisation ccNSO
Generic Names Supporting Organisation GNSO
Root Server System Advisory Committee RSSAC
Technical Liaison Group TLG
Security and Stability Advisory Committee SSAC
Address Supporting Organisation ASO
17
International multi-stakeholder representation
and participation

• Government Advisory Committee about 100
  governments and 5 International Treaty
  Organisations
• At-Large Advisory Committee 18 At-Large
  Structures from four global regions
• Board of Directors represents 14 nationalities
• ICANN Staff hail from nine different countries
  (Australia, Denmark, France, Mongolia, the
  Netherlands, Niger, Taiwan, the United Kingdom,
  and the United States)

18
Bottom-up consensus and stakeholder
representation
Independent bottom-up coordination
Global stakeholder representation
19
How we implement our multi-stakeholder process

• Regular meetings of Supporting Organisations
  Councils and Advisory Committees
• Defined policy development processes (PDPs) for
  Supporting Organisations
• Regular ICANN Board meetings
• Most importantly, ICANN maintains a public
  meeting forum

20
ICANN and DoC relationship

• I am pleased that ICANN has timely met the MOU
  milestones to date. Clearly more work remains to
  be done for ICANN to achieve functional,
  sustainable independence. We look forward to
  continuing to work collaboratively with ICANN to
  complete the remaining tasks over the course of
  the MOU as we complete the transition to
  independent, private sector management of the
  Internet Domain Name System.
• Statement by Michael D. Gallagher, Assistant
  Secretary of Commerce for communications and
  Information, on ICANNs July meeting in Kuala
  Lumpur. 19 July 2004

21
Ways to participate in ICANN

• Supporting organisations
• Advisory commitees
• Workshop on the World Summit Information Society
  (WSIS)
• IDN workshop
• Open session
• GAC has already been meeting
• Working groups
• Regional forum
• Plenary meetings

22
International Multistakeholder Organisation

• Transnational (1st international office in
  Belgium, Africa one to follow and other regions
  too)
• All stakeholders represented (regional offices
  will help for the outreach, participation, domain
  names, registrars, etc. issues)
• Flexible in organisational management (management
  of change, of information and technology)
• Structure and participation designed to avoid
  capture by any special interests or log jams
  (rounds and rounds of negotiations)
• Reflective of its own Regime (reflection on
  ICANNs duties every 2 years, reform, etc.)
• Focus on effectiveness and relevancy
  (interoperability and stability for single root)

23

• For more information please see
• http//www.icann.com
• Or send an email to
• swinehart_at_icann.org