ICANN was formed as an innovative governance organization and today it lived up to that reputation, announcing that it had hired a superhero as its new CEO.
Although it claimed that its new leader was an ordinary man named Rod Beckstrom, those in the know realize that the new CEO is really Aquaman, the Super Friend who frequents the Hall of Justice. These side-by-side photos of Aquaman and the purported “Mr. Beckstrom” make the connection clear…
The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNET) is a scholarly community that promotes the development of Internet Governance as a recognized, interdisciplinary field of study and facilitates informed dialogue on policy issues and related matters between scholars and governments, international organizations, the private sector and civil society. On behalf of the Program Committee, we are pleased to announce the Call for Papers to the IV Annual Giganet Sympoium which will take place on November 14, 2009 – one day before the fourth UN Internet Governance Forum, in Sharm-El Sheik, Egypt.
One of the more refreshing aspects of the NTIA's ongoing NOI regarding the expiration of the Joint Project Agreement with ICANN was the inclusion of an ex parte reporting requirement. It presumably added a
level of transparency to Internet governance matters and their relationship to the United States government which had not been seen before. Unfortunately, it was too good to be true. From yesterday's Federal Register, comes a clarification regarding ex parte procedures associated with NTIA's NOI.
Phillip Hallam-Baker, an Internet security pioneer and most recently Principal Scientist at VeriSign, has criticized current DNSSEC root signing arrangements in his comments to the Dept of Commerce as a “profoundly destabilizing technology” for the Internet. He recommends that NTIA “require that ICANN propose a technical solution for signing the DNS root zone that is endorsed by a clear majority of the national stakeholders.”
The IGP has filed comments in the Department of Commerce proceeding on the “Assessment of the Transition of the Technical Coordination and Management of the Internet’s Domain Name and Addressing System” (Docket No. 090420688-9689-01). An excerpt from the summary is below:
“The global challenges we face demand global institutions that work.”
– President Barack Obama, 2008ICANN lacks accountability and its processes are full of problems, but the JPA is not the right tool to use to fix them. The JPA contributes to ICANN's failings. …it does nothing but invite the stakeholders in one privileged country to complain to their own government about policy outcomes they don't like. The U.S. government needs to let the JPA expire, and immediately initiate an international agreement that formalizes and completes the transition of ICANN to a stable form of multi-stakeholder global governance rooted in a nonprofit corporation.
One of the better side stories of yesterday's Congressional hearing on ICANN concerned Congressman Dingell's 5-minute intervention (see ~1:49:00 into the video) during witness questioning. In addition to raising the expected inquires into the expiration of the JPA, he also asked the witnesses their opinions concerning the 2006 ICANN-VeriSign negotiation of the .com contract.
When the witnesses were asked if the contract “suffered from a lack of transparency,” he got the expected answers. ICANN's CEO Paul Twomey, pointing out the contract was publicly available, said “no.” Ken Silva of VeriSign agreed. Go Daddy, VeriSign's largest customer, argued to the contrary. Yes, Christine Jones said, the contract was publicly available, but it was the secrecy-shrouded process that led up to it that was cause for concern, and that Go Daddy didn't agree with the outcome.
Apparently this concern is justified. Today, a 9th Circuit Appeals Court ruling indirectly supported Go Daddy's suspicions in its reversal of an earlier decision made in Plaintiff Coalition for ICANN Transparency (“CFIT”) vs. VeriSign.
As we approach the deadline for filing comments on the expiration of ICANN's Joint Projects Agreement with the U.S. Commerce Department, do not forget about the .xxx Independent Review Process. In that proceeding, ICANN directly confronts issues related to its accountability.
ICANN is all for accountability and claims to be doing everything in its power to make itself accountable and responsive to YOU (it likes to use the second person). But in ICANN's official Response to the ICM's “Memorial on the Merits,” which was just posted a few days ago, ICANN sings a different tune. There seems to be a bit of a gap between what ICANN says about accountability in the abstract (it is all for it) and what it says when accountability really threatens to alter its behavior.
Declaring Independence in Cyberspace tells the story of the struggle between governments and the global Internet community over control of the Internet registries (IANA). It offers new insights into a pressing question with profound implications: is state sovereignty the immutable foundation of global governance, or can new technological capabilities change the model?
“This is a book that needed to be written, and no one is better placed to write it than Milton Mueller. This full, rigorous account provides researchers and policymakers with a precious resource on global internet governance.”
Jan Aart Scholte, Leiden University