The workshop entitled “The Future of ICANN: After the JPA, What?” will be held in Room 4 on Thursday, December 4, 2008 from 11:00-12:30 (local Hyderabad time, 5:30-7:00 UTC) at the upcoming Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, India. Co-sponsored by the IGP, the Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus, Pharos Global and The Go Daddy Group, Inc., the workshop brings together several experts and practitioners in the field Internet governance to explore future models for governance of critical internet resources. The event will be webcast and online attendees will be able to submit questions through the IGF host website.
Audio and video feeds
Remote interaction (select Room 4)
ICANN, which coordinates and sets policy for the global domain name system (DNS) and IP addressing, is linked to the US Government through a Joint Project Agreement (JPA) that expires in September 2009. The JPA and its renewal process provides what, during WSIS, became known as “political oversight” over ICANN. The US government says that it is committed to “completing the transition” to private sector coordination of the Domain Name System, which implies an expiration of the JPA. During the recent mid-term review, ICANN made it clear that it also strongly supports an end to the JPA. ICANN's call was supported by some stakeholders, but others expressed concerns about ensuring its accountability without some kind of governmental oversight.
This panel is designed to provide a careful and balanced exploration of whether ICANN is ready to be free of US government oversight, and if so what kind of external oversight – if any – should replace it. Panelists will be encouraged to provide specific models for ICANN's status and various oversight models and offer practical suggestions on how to make changes in the current situation. Advocates of retaining the status quo will also be represented.
Moderated by IGP's Lee McKnight, panelists include:
- Michael Palage, Attorney, former ICANN Board member, and consultant to several private sector domain name registries
- Jean-Jacques Subrenat, ICANN Board and member of President's Strategy Committee
- Milton Mueller, Internet Governance Project
- Len St-Aubin, Director General, Telecommunications Policy, Industry Canada
- Stefano Trumpy, Italian Government GAC representative and participant in the EU High Level Internet Governance Group
- Tim Ruiz, VP, Corp. Development & Policy, The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
