Domain Names Part I Continued

ICANN

How and Why ICANN Formed

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a not-for-profit corporation that aims to manage the domain name system, manage the root servers that help implement the domain name system, allocate IP address blocks, and manage protocol parameter assignment. ICANN's articles of incorporation and bylaws were drafted by the Internet Assigned Names Authority (IANA) and Network Solutions, Incorporated (NSI). The corporation was formed in reaction to two policy papers released by the U.S. Government regarding the transfer of administration of the Internet to the private sector.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the Green Paper on January 30, 1998. This "discussion draft" described plans to "privatize, increase competition in, and promote international participation in the domain name system." This first draft came under immediate criticism from a number of quarters. The Internet Council of Registrars (CORE), a group formed during discussions involving the IANA and the Internet Society (ISOC), gave a particularly detailed criticism of the paper, pointing out the problems that they (CORE) felt their own recommendations would take care of.

The Paper's main problem was that it outlined policies and principles for future governance of the Internet, despite the U.S.'s stated desire to see the Internet community determine the system's future. Also, as written, it would maintain NSI's monopoly in the top-level domains that it already maintained (.com, .org, and .net), and would create a series of monopolies in additional top-level domains, with each new domain name registrar gaining exclusive control of a top-level domain.

The White Paper, released on June 5, 1998, dealt with these concerns by postponing decisions on the future of the Internet, and placing those decisions in the hands of a not-yet-formed corporation. The Internet community was asked to create the new corporation. In response, IANA and NSI drafted articles of incorporation and bylaws for ICANN, selected the initial (interim) Board of Directors for the organization, and declared ICANN to be that not-for-profit corporation. The proposed articles of incorporation and bylaws for ICANN were published on September 17, 1998. ICANN was actually incorporated on September 30, and and held its first organizational meeting on October 25.

In a Memorandum of Understanding dated November 12, 1998, the Department of Commerce and ICANN agreed to work together to transition management of the Domain Name System to the private sector; specifically, to ICANN. The memorandum allows for the transition to take until September 30, 2000 to complete, keeping the U.S. Government in the process for almost 2 years after the memorandum was signed. But it allows for ICANN to dictate the policies and procedures to be adopted, rather than the government.

What ICANN Has Been Doing

Since forming, ICANN has weathered a great deal of criticism - primarily because its board was appointed, rather than voted on by the Internet community; and because it holds board meetings in private. (As a result of the criticism, ICANN has hired a PR firm.) Its early meetings seemed to consist mainly of fending off attacks on its legitimacy. At a recent meeting in Singapore, though, it made some significant progress in its mission of privatizing the DNS.

At the Singapore meeting, following public comment on a previously-published draft, ICANN adopted a set of policies for accrediting new registrars (organizations authorized to accept registrations for domains) for the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains. Competition among registrars in these top-level domains will be phased in through a two-part process. First, a "testbed program" involving five registrars will run from April 26, 1999 through June 25. Once this testbed program is finished, and technical and administrative problems brought about by competition are dealt with, more registrars will be accredited and allowed to register domain names. The deadline for testbed applicants is March 29, 1999; there is no deadline for other applicants, who will be accredited on a rolling basis.

The requirements each applicant must meet include a small application fee ($2500 for "testbed" applicants, $1000 for others); working capital of at least $70,000; $500,000 of commercial general liability insurance; and the demonstrated ability to handle the administrative and technical tasks associated with handling domain name registration. (All of the above figures are in US dollars.)

Also at their Singapore meeting, the ICANN Board accepted proposals related to the creation of a Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO), "a consensus-based policy advisory body within ICANN." The DNSO is supposed to be the voice of Internet stakeholders inside ICANN, charged with presenting the Internet community's advice and desires to the Board.

Following examination of the proposals, and their own private meeting, the Board published draft changes to the ICANN bylaws, to provide for creation of the DNSO. According to the draft, the DNSO will be formed from a number of different constituencies (including registrars, commercial interests, and non-commercial interests), each of which will "self-form." Each constituency will determine for itself who (or what) can be a member. In the event that a constituency excludes a number of people or organizations who feel they belong in it, the Board expects the excluded members to "self-form" into one or more new constituencies.

Any person or organization willing to contribute time and energy to the DNSO is welcome to join.

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