http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,27757,00.html
Domain plan a step closer
By Janet Kornblum
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 20, 1998, 3:05 p.m. PT
The United States government today took an
important step toward transferring its power over
the Internet to the private sector.
Just four days after the death of Net luminary Jon
Postel, the Commerce Department's National
Telecommunications and Information
Administration gave the nod to a plan presented by
Postel, who headed the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA).
In a letter to the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority, the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration said the government had
reviewed and essentially approved its plan to set up
a new private corporation to run the domain name
system--the underpinnings of the Internet, said
Becky Burr, associate administrator of the agency.
That corporation--the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)--would
be run by a board of 19 people. The board will be
chosen by an initial group of nine people, including
members from Europe and Asia.
Burr said that comments submitted to the agency
about the plan generally supported the ICANN,
but had some concerns that the agency is hoping
the IANA will resolve, under the leadership of
Herb Schorr.
His task will not be easy. The domain name
system--and the cumbersome and lengthy process
of handing over control over it from the U.S.
government to the private sector--has been plagued
with controversy.
While many are happy with the ICANN, others
have accused the IANA and those behind the
process of operating in a closed-door fashion,
leaving them out of the important decision-making
process.
For instance, the Electronic Frontier Foundation
has worried that without government oversight, the
ICANN will be able to operate under a shroud of
secrecy.
Specifically, the Electronic Frontier Foundation
called for rules that require open meetings and
public disclosure, for example.
The National Telecommunications and Information
Administration specifically asked the IANA to look
into many of these issues, according to Burr.
"The public submissions and comments indicate that
there are remaining concerns in the area of
accountability (representational and financial),
transparent decision-making processes, conflict of
interest, and ICANN's proposed role with respect
to country-code top-level domains," the letter
states.
"We believe ICANN's submission represents a
significant step forward, but there were a lot of
questions and concerns about the specifics of their
submission," Burr said. "The letter details specific
areas related to their accountability, conflict of
interest, and decision-making process," she said.
The IANA, under Schorr, will report back to the
agency, which ultimately will hand over the reins to
the new organization. The process could take
weeks, rather than months.
Burr said that after Postel's death, the agency's staff
contacted several people who have been involved
in the process to gauge how the government should
move forward and whether it should delay the
process.
"The consensus was that we should proceed," she
said. "While it's going to be hard to replace Jon, he
had technical staff that he trained and were in place
and were perfectly capable of running this. It's
important to move forward to preserve the stability
of the Internet and to privatize the management of
domain names."
While the government is working on transition plan,
Network Solutions has received a two-year
extension on its monopolist government contract to
administer the domain naming system.
The deal, which lasts until September 2000,
requires the publicly traded firm to open up its Net
name registration coffers to competitors by next
summer but start transferring technical control of
top-level domains to an international nonprofit
board by March.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jan 30 2000 - 03:22:37 PST