On March 14, the US Department of Commerce, holder of the top-level domain and network address database, announced that it is giving up its ICANN role. The announcement was made by Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information of the US Department of Commerce. He said that the department had addressed ICANN with a request to take any necessary measures to act upon the decision. Mr Strickling stressed that he rules out completely the role being taken over by the UN and that a special agency must be set up for these purposes.
Currently, ICANN manages the technical functions of the Internet under the agreement with the US Department of Commerce that expires in September 2015. Fadi Chehadé, ICANN's President and CEO, reported that the corporation is moving toward a transition to new network management tools. "We are inviting governments, the private sector, civil society, and other Internet organizations from the whole world to join us in developing this transition process,” he said. “All stakeholders deserve a voice in the management and governance of this global resource as equal partners."
“The US has long envisioned the day when stewardship over these vital technical functions would be transitioned to the global community," said Dr. Stephen D. Crocker, ICANN's Board Chair. “Now it is up to our global stakeholder community to determine the best route to get us there.” He expressed hope that all further action on changing the Internet management would be based on multistakeholderism.
The discussion of the further transition and the future of the Internet will begin on March 23-27 at the 49th ICANN conference in Singapore. These issues will be the focus of the agenda. Stay tuned.
