Monday, July 18, 2005
ICANN plans long term in spite of short term uncertainties
By Steven Lang, Highway Africa News Agency
Luxembourg- ICANN – the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has approved an annual budget that includes provision for a strategic plan covering the years from 2006 to 2009. Delegates have been invited to contribute towards this far-reaching plan despite uncertainties looming just over the horizon.
ICANN's board of directors approved the 2005 – 2006 budget at the 23rd international public meeting held in Luxembourg. More than 900 delegates from 55 countries attended the gathering which is part of ICANN's program to enhance transparency through public meetings in diverse cities of the world.
Paul Twomey, chief executive officer of ICANN, hailed the successes of the meeting which included a series of productive workshops, important strides in the fight against domain name high-jacking and a contract to create the .mobi domain for the mobile community. Yet, in spite of these undoubted triumphs, there was an air of uncertainty at the meetings.
There are two sources of this uncertainty: the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, and the recent decision in Washington to retain control of the root folder.
WSIS is a two phased process aimed at structuring the information society and bridging the digital divide between the wealthier, industrialised countries and the developing nations. The first phase of the summit took place in Geneva in December 2003 and the second phase will culminate in Tunis in November 2005.
Widespread dissatisfaction over ICANN's prominent role, and confrontations over who should govern the internet resulted in a lack of consensus at the Geneva phase. In an attempt to resolve this impasse, after the summit, the UN Secretary General convened the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) to make recommendations on what should be done about internet governance.
ICANN critics, and especially those who are unhappy about the close relationship between the organisation and the US government, are expected to use the WGIG report to try to transfer ICANN responsibilities to a UN agency.
Vint Cerf, ICANN chairman, says the board will certainly formulate a response to the WGIG proposals offering four models on how the internet could be run in the future. He said he was favourably impressed with the overall tone of the WGIG report, however "….all four models are very high level and the devil is in the details".
The second source of uncertainty was born out of a Bush administration declaration expressing its intention to retain control of the root folder – essentially the key to the internet.
While the declaration went out of its way to re-affirm its confidence in ICANN, the fact that Washington reneged on its earlier promise to relinquish control of the root servers, must sow some seeds of doubt. If the US government can break its word once, how sure can ICANN be that it will honour its promise to step back from its over-sight role in September 2006?
Washington's unilateral decision to retain control over the root servers strengthened perceptions that the US government is still firmly in control of the internet and has no intention of changing the status quo.
One of the most visible achievements at the Luxembourg meeting was the completion of a contract between ICANN and a consortium of interested parties for the creation of the .mobi domain. This means that the mobile community will be able to buy addresses that end with .mobi.
The consortium, known as mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd has an interesting mix of shareholders including: Microsoft, GSM Association, Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia and Vodafone. An ICANN press release says the consortium was formed with the specific purpose of "…creating a registry service to the .mobi domain. This will serve as a reliable and recognisable mechanism for internet content and services that are specifically tailored to a mobile experience".
The ICANN board also decided that its next international public meeting in Vancouver , Canada would be designated as the "Annual Meeting of ICANN".
Luxembourg- ICANN – the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has approved an annual budget that includes provision for a strategic plan covering the years from 2006 to 2009. Delegates have been invited to contribute towards this far-reaching plan despite uncertainties looming just over the horizon.
ICANN's board of directors approved the 2005 – 2006 budget at the 23rd international public meeting held in Luxembourg. More than 900 delegates from 55 countries attended the gathering which is part of ICANN's program to enhance transparency through public meetings in diverse cities of the world.
Paul Twomey, chief executive officer of ICANN, hailed the successes of the meeting which included a series of productive workshops, important strides in the fight against domain name high-jacking and a contract to create the .mobi domain for the mobile community. Yet, in spite of these undoubted triumphs, there was an air of uncertainty at the meetings.
There are two sources of this uncertainty: the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, and the recent decision in Washington to retain control of the root folder.
WSIS is a two phased process aimed at structuring the information society and bridging the digital divide between the wealthier, industrialised countries and the developing nations. The first phase of the summit took place in Geneva in December 2003 and the second phase will culminate in Tunis in November 2005.
Widespread dissatisfaction over ICANN's prominent role, and confrontations over who should govern the internet resulted in a lack of consensus at the Geneva phase. In an attempt to resolve this impasse, after the summit, the UN Secretary General convened the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) to make recommendations on what should be done about internet governance.
ICANN critics, and especially those who are unhappy about the close relationship between the organisation and the US government, are expected to use the WGIG report to try to transfer ICANN responsibilities to a UN agency.
Vint Cerf, ICANN chairman, says the board will certainly formulate a response to the WGIG proposals offering four models on how the internet could be run in the future. He said he was favourably impressed with the overall tone of the WGIG report, however "….all four models are very high level and the devil is in the details".
The second source of uncertainty was born out of a Bush administration declaration expressing its intention to retain control of the root folder – essentially the key to the internet.
While the declaration went out of its way to re-affirm its confidence in ICANN, the fact that Washington reneged on its earlier promise to relinquish control of the root servers, must sow some seeds of doubt. If the US government can break its word once, how sure can ICANN be that it will honour its promise to step back from its over-sight role in September 2006?
Washington's unilateral decision to retain control over the root servers strengthened perceptions that the US government is still firmly in control of the internet and has no intention of changing the status quo.
One of the most visible achievements at the Luxembourg meeting was the completion of a contract between ICANN and a consortium of interested parties for the creation of the .mobi domain. This means that the mobile community will be able to buy addresses that end with .mobi.
The consortium, known as mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd has an interesting mix of shareholders including: Microsoft, GSM Association, Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia and Vodafone. An ICANN press release says the consortium was formed with the specific purpose of "…creating a registry service to the .mobi domain. This will serve as a reliable and recognisable mechanism for internet content and services that are specifically tailored to a mobile experience".
The ICANN board also decided that its next international public meeting in Vancouver , Canada would be designated as the "Annual Meeting of ICANN".
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