IANA – Plan B

Dr Willie Black

25 March 2003

The Problem• ICANN/IANA not responsive to requests from

non-contracted ccTLDs

• ICANN/IANA has not agreed operational procedures with those who need the service

• ICANN/IANA mixing policy with operations

• ICANN/IANA not costing operation clearly

Current Contracts Situation • Doc – Verisign to propagate the root zone

file

• Doc – ICANN/IANA to maintain database

• ccTLDs – IANA ???

ccIANA ftom Shanghai• Technical

– Schema, Authentication, Process• Legal

– Very lightweight contract (call it an MoU!) – Authority to operator to put into root– Authority to remove temporarily in extremis– Payment of costs

• Regionally distributed• Political

– Acceptance by DoC– Support of regional governments

Reality• USG has renewed with ICANN (6 months+)

• USG probably not willing to distribute IANA function or have outside US

• Possibility that USG will open a tender if ICANN/IANA fails to address community needs?

Possible Criteria for IANA• No interference in national policy-making

• No subjectivity judgments by IANA???

• Ring-fenced funding & Not-for-profit regime

• Separate contracts ONLY for IANA part

• Specification and Management of operating policies only by the TLD managers and IANA

• Well-defined procedures and SLAs

Questions• Agree criteria with changes?

• Publish in communiqué?

• Agree technical spec? Who? How?

• Should we have dialogue with ICANN? How?

• Dialogue with other parties? Who? How?