ICANN has formulated a proposal on the mechanisms and principles for the transition of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) stewardship of the Domain Name System to the global multistakeholder community.
The proposal was published on ICANN’s website and provides for forming a steering group to monitor the transition.
The group would comprise 22 volunteers from the main ICANN bodies, such as the Address Supporting Organization (ASO), the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO), the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), as well as external IANA-user bodies such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB).
The group members from each body will be approved by ICANN Board Chair Steve Crocker and GAC Chair Heather Dryden. A look at the proposed structure of the steering group indicates that the majority of seats will be occupied by technical experts, legal experts and representatives of the Internet industry. Government organizations will have four seats at most, which should ease the fear that management of the DNS could be ceded to authoritarian governments.
ICANN has also called for public input on the proposed group of volunteers, the selection process, and the group’s functions and members. If the global multistakeholder community supports ICANN’s proposal, the steering group would be formed in time to convene for the first time during ICANN 50 in London in June 2014.
