After two years of intense work by hundreds of people, there are now less than 23 days to go before the contract between the NTIA and ICANN will expire and the oversight of the IANA function will effectively be transferred to the international multistakeholder community.
With the ICANN Bylaws adapted, the legal structures created and the processes being set up, there are still a few I’s to dot and T’s to cross. At the moment, the ccTLD community is working hard on the IANA functions naming agreement and services agreement. There are still a few key issues left that need clarification. The two most important ones are: (1) how the existing body of principles and guidelines should be referred to and how they should be implemented; and (2) the need to clarify the process to make changes to the Technical Requirements for root zone changes. The comment period closes on 9 September. CENTR is drafting a formal CENTR comment that will include suggested wording to address these issues.
In parallel, the different communities are appointing people to the new structures that will guarantee proper oversight of the Public Technical Identifiers (PTI). For the ccNSO, Byron Holland (.ca) and Jay Daley (.nz) have been appointed to the Customer Standing Committee.
Last week, the NTIA sent a formal letter to ICANN notifying that it plans to let the contract expire as of 1 October 2016, bar any “significant impediments”. A court injunction would for sure be regarded as such a “significant impediment”. The chances of that happening are small, but everyone who understands the need for the transition should relentlessly keep educating people about the importance of what is about to take place. As always, a complex story is much more difficult to get across than a simplified version that bends the truth. Especially during an election year.
