ICANN Welcomes United States Department of Commerce's Continued [...]

ICANN today welcomed strong statements made by Mr John Kneuer,Acting Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, United States Department of Commerce indicating support for private sector leadership of the DNS.

Providing testimony yesterday before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Trade, Tourism and Economic Development, Mr Kneuer said:

"...the Department continues to be supportive of private sector leadership in the coordination of the technical functions related to the management of the DNS as envisioned in the ICANN model. Furthermore, the Department continues to support the work of ICANN as the coordinator for the technical functions related to the management of the Internet DNS".

ICANN President and CEO, Dr Paul Twomey said it was clear that the Department continues to believe that the stability and security of the Internet domain name and addressing system can best be achieved by transitioning the coordination of the technical functions related to the management of the DNS, to the private sector.

"His statements recognize ICANN has successfully met many of the MOU's date-specific milestones" Dr Twomey said.

Some of these milestones are listed below.

"ICANN will continue to work towards completing the goal of private sector leadership in the coordination of the DNS" he said.

Date Specific Milestones already achieved by ICANN as listed by Acting Assistant Secretary Kneuer

• developing a strategic plan addressing administrative, financial and operational objectives;
• developing a contingency plan to ensure continuity of operations in the event ICANN incurs a severe disruption of such operations, by reason of bankruptcy, corporate dissolution, natural disaster or other financial, physical or operational event;
• conducting a review of corporate administrative and personnel requirements and corporate responsibility mechanisms;
• developing a financial strategy to secure more predictable and sustainable sources of revenue;
• improving its processes and procedures for the timely development and adoption of policies related to the technical management of the DNS;
• implementing reconsideration and review processes, including an Ombudsman and commercial arbitration clauses in ICANN contracts;
• developing a strategy for the introduction of new generic top level domains, including internationalized domain names;
• enhancing broader participation in ICANN processes by the global community through improved outreach, regional liaisons, and multilingual communications;
• publishing annual reports on community experiences with the WHOIS Data Problem Reports System, used to report inaccuracies in the submission of WHOIS data by domain name registrants; and
• publishing annual reports on the implementation of the WHOIS Data Reminder Policy, which domain name registrars are required to send to domain name registrants.

About ICANN:

ICANN is a non-profit organisation responsible for coordinating the Internet's systems of unique identifiers, including the systems of domain names and numeric addresses that are used to reach computers on the Internet. ICANN's mission is to ensure the stable and secure operation of these unique identifier systems, which are vital to the Internet' operation. In addition, ICANN coordinates policy development related to these technical functions through its effective bottom-up consensus model.

Media Contacts:

International

Andrew Robertson, Edelman (London)
Ph: +44 7921 588 770
E: andrew.robertson@edelman.com

Tanzanica King, ICANN (USA)
Ph: +1 310 301 5804
E: tanzanica.king@icann.org