Proposal for new Internet organization goes public

By Elinor Mills
IDG News Service, 9/18/98

A final draft of a proposal creating a non-profit company to assign and manage top-level Internet domain names was made public yesterday with proponents claiming success at reaching a consensus.

The company, to be based in Los Angeles, will be called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Industry officials who worked on the proposal hope to have the company created by Sept. 30, which is when the U.S. government contracts expire with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) to administer and register, respectively, the top-level domains, such as .com, .net and .org.

A U.S. government whitepaper released in June asked the global Internet community to come up with an organization that could assume the responsibility for managing the domains. The challenge was to represent the interests of the global Internet community, including users from different countries, as well as different types of users, such as consumers, developers and businesses.

The draft could be fine-tuned over the next few days based on feedback, but it represents the final substantive proposal, NSI and IANA said.

The proposal does not deviate significantly from a version released at the end of August. That version specified that the objective of the organization would be to maintain Internet stability and allocate new top-level domain names, as well as stipulated: a nine-member board of directors initially, followed by the addition of nine at-large directors and a president; limitations on directors' affiliations with governments; and restrictions on how many directors could come from one geographic region.

However, the final ICANN's bylaws contain minor changes that result in two basic shifts from the earlier version of the proposal that pertain to making the board's actions more open and public and to creation of the board itself.

The bylaws include additional language to "ensure that there will be adequate notice of the new organizations' actions, opportunities for input from all that are interested, and an explanation of the organization's decisions." They also require adoption of procedures through which "affected parties can seek reconsideration of board actions." Specifically, the bylaws call for publication of an annual report and financial statement, publication of meeting minutes, advance notice of meetings and open annual meetings.

Secondly, the bylaws "strengthened the language directing the Board to try to find a way to provide for some form of membership and electoral process of the At Large members of the Board."

"You get the best worlds, on a practical basis, for the Internet as a whole and that's really the key objective," said Martin Burack, executive director of the Internet Society, in praise of the final draft.

It's not perfect, Burack acknowledged, but he said it was a successful compromise that represented all Internet interests as best as possible. Burack also predicted that the proposal will be pretty much universally accepted by Internet users, businesses and governments.

Ira Magaziner, President Clinton's special adviser on the Internet who presented the government's whitepaper calling for creation of a new domain name organization, was traveling and could not be reached for comment. Other government spokespeople in his office and in the U.S. Department of Commerce also could not be reached.

"Getting a global consensus, it turns out, is not that easy," said Joe Sims, a lawyer who assisted the IANA in its negotiations on the draft. "We have taken into account in an appropriate way all the serious concerns that the people who have been the continuing participants in this dialogue over the last several months have made.

"We're hoping we're going to get widespread support so we can stand up and say to the U.S. government that this is a true consensus document," Sims added.

A spokesman for the NSI was equally satisfied with the final draft.

"All the major points of contention have been voiced and very loudly over the last three months and all have been addressed," said Chris Clough of the NSI. "The key was to have two of the most influential stakeholders ... finally come together on the issue," he said referring to the NSI and the IANA.