[Chapter-delegates] ISOC response to the NTIA's call for comment on the USDoC- ICANN MoU

[Matthew Shears]

Dear members,

 

ISOC is in the process of drafting a reply to the NTIA Notice of Inquiry on
the MOU between the U.S. Department of Commerce and ICANN. We have been
consulting with ISOC Board members, ISOC members, and others, and we are
particularly grateful for the responses to the related notice that was sent
to the memberpubpol and other ISOC mailing lists recently.

 

We will not be responding to the specific questions in the NTIA notice and
will not delve into specific operational details of ICANN processes and
decision-making. Instead, we plan to address three main issues we believe to
be essential to ICANN's future success, outlined briefly below:

 

1) Building and clarifying relationships

 

ISOC has always supported ICANN and the role ICANN plays in the
collaborative Internet model.   ICANN is an essential organization among
those that manage and administer the Internet on a day to day basis.

 

We welcome ICANN's efforts to improve how it interacts with governments
through the Government Advisory Council and to working to be more responsive
to the needs of its various constituencies. 

 

Going forward, ISOC feels it is key that the NTIA better define - and limit
- the role it or any government agency (US or other) plays in ICANN
oversight.

 

2) Defining roles and responsibilities

 

In addition to further limiting its own role, the NTIA should recognize that
ICANN's current scope is appropriate and should not be expanded.  

 

ICANN should remain focused on those functions that are necessary to be
performed centrally at the global level and that are materially important to
the continued success of the Internet.  ISOC would suggest, for example,
that operational authority over the DNS root name server system through
formal arrangements with the root name server operators is not desirable. We
believe that the current distributed and redundant way of operating the root
name servers by a dozen independent organizations is highly successful.

 

ISOC also regards the calls for more heavyweight governance inside of ICANN
and for replacing ICANN with international structures misplaced.  Such moves
would merely increase end-user costs and creates structures that will resist
the deployment of improved, innovative and evolutionary technologies.  

 

3) Evolving with the Internet 

 

In addition to the time-tested principles laid out in the DNS White Paper,
NTIA should also add the principle of "evolution" in recognition that
today's Domain Name System is likely to change with time. 

 

In the future, there will be advances in technology, changes to the
underlying infrastructure and other ways to name resources on the Internet,
and NTIA and ICANN should not try to lock-in systems, processes or
contractual obligations based on today's technological approach.  

 

The Internet has become a powerful and versatile platform because its
technological architecture has been stable and open to innovation and
experimentation. 

 

These are important and sensitive times for the Internet and for many of the
organizations involved.  It is important that public policy positions ISOC
or our chapters take support ISOC's overall principles as we believe this is
the best way to maximize innovation on the Internet, and the best way to
have an open, accessible and successful Internet.  

 

We are very interested in your thoughts and/or any contributions you intend
to make to this call for comment.  We are finalizing ISOC's comments this
week since the deadline for submissions is this Friday, July 7.

 

Best,

 

Matthew

 

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