[ga-icann] Domain group revolts against ICANN

["Patrick Corliss" <patrick@quad.net.au>]

Domain group revolts against ICANN
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2767690,00.html

By Juliana Gruenwald
Interactive Week
June 1, 2001 12:01 PM PT

STOCKHOLM, Sweden--The operators of the Internet domain names designated for
countries around the world voted Friday to withdraw from a key organization
that helps set policies for the group that manages the Internet's Domain
Name System.

During the opening day of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers' quarterly meeting, a working group of the operators of the
country-code top level domains (ccTLDs), such as .uk or .fr, voted
unanimously to pull out of ICANN's Domain Name Supporting Organization
(DNSO). They also called on ICANN to create a separate supporting
organization that would provide the ccTLD operators with more say in ICANN's
decision making and give them at least one seat on ICANN's board of
directors.

"We don't believe we got much from the DNSO," said William Black, managing
director at Nominet UK, which manages the country code, .uk, for the United
Kingdom. "We want a more meaningful" role within ICANN.

The ccTLD operators have been in discussions for several months with ICANN
aimed at developing agreements to better define their relationship with
ICANN. It was picked in 1998 by the U.S. government to take over management
of the Internet's DNS. In that role, ICANN plays a key role in establishing
policies that affect so-called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) such as
.com, .net and .org, those targeted at Internet users all over the world.

While ICANN does not make policy decisions for ccTLD operators, it is
responsible for providing some technical tasks for them. In exchange, ICANN
has called on the ccTLD operators to provide as much as one-third of the
organization's funding. There are about 250 ccTLD operators around the
world, though many are not active in the ICANN process.

The ccTLD operators say they have made much progress in their talks with
ICANN. Still, they have long complained about their role within the DNSO,
which is primarily focused on policies that affect global domain names. At
the same time, the DNSO itself has been criticized by some as largely
ineffective.

ICANN has two other supporting organizations that provide advice on
technical issues. Each supporting organization gets three seats on ICANN's
19-member board.

"The DNSO is broken," said Nigel Roberts, the operator of the Channel
Islands ccTLD, .gg. "We have tried over the years to work within the
process. It's clear for a number of reasons it is not going to work."

ICANN board member Rob Blokzijl said he supports the ccTLD operators' demand
for their own supporting organization, adding that it is something they
should have called for a long time ago.

Still, ICANN is not expected to act on the ccTLD operators' demand at its
board meeting on Monday, said ICANN President M. Stuart Lynn.

While declining to say whether ICANN would agree to their demand, Lynn
acknowledged that the ccTLD operators "provide a significant proportion of
funding (for ICANN) and should have their voice effectively heard within the
structure" of ICANN.

However, the ccTLD operators' call for seats on the ICANN board could prove
controversial if it forces another group to give up some of their seats,
particularly if they come from the nine seats originally allocated to
Internet users at large. ICANN is conducting a study about whether general
Internet users, as opposed to those that represent business or another
constituency, should have seats on the board.

Consumer groups, academics and others have been critical of any moves to
eliminate these "at-large" board seats. Internet users from around the world
were given an opportunity last fall to elect five of the nine at-large
members to the ICANN board. But ICANN has yet to say whether four others
also will be elected. Those four seats are currently held by four of the
original nine members appointed to the ICANN board when it was created
nearly more than two years ago.


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