Transparency & Accountability

ICANN Beijing: Update on the ATRT

by .Nxt | 6 Apr 2013 |

It's only the most important ICANN process you've never heard of

"ICANN is reviewing itself to death. So it would be nice to know why the current review process doesn't work."

There is a certain irony in the fact that ICANN Board member Chris Disspain was asking this of the organization's lead review team - the Accountability and Transparency Review Team, or ATRT.

Disspain is right though, as he often is when it comes to identifying the problems, many self-inflicted, that ICANN faces. He went on to identify a number of other structural and cultural issues, as well as spot where the organization had actually improved in the past year.

Internet registries raise gTLD stakes with open teleconference

by .Nxt | 27 Feb 2013 |

Webinar turns tables on ICANN

The companies that run much of the domain name system are pushing a contractual dispute with overseeing organization ICANN public.

In an unusual move, the Registry Stakeholder Group of ICANN (RySG), which represents all the registries currently under contract with ICANN, and the New gTLD Applicant Group (NTAG), which represents more than half of the 1,930 applications for new Internet registries, have published an invitation for a public teleconference to discuss the proposed contract changes.

Anyone interested is invited to attend the online meeting on Monday, March 4, 2013 at 1500 UTC through the address http://icann.adobeconnect.com/rysg/. Those who wish to speak will have to call in and use the password "RY"; call-in numbers are provided on the invitation.

A dangerous sense of déjà vu

by Emily Taylor | 16 Jan 2013 |

In May 2012, the Whois Review Team delivered its final report to the ICANN board with a real sense of achievement.

As the system for providing details about who is in charge of any given Internet domain name, the Whois is critical to the proper functioning the domain name system. As such, it is one of four issues highlighted for independent review under ICANN’s deal with the US Government, the Affirmation of Commitments.

Every three years, a cross-community team has to look at the extent to which ICANN’s Whois policy and implementation are effective, meet the legitimate needs of law enforcement and promote consumer trust.

Despite being an apparently inoffensive directory of contact details, Whois has proved one of the most intractable and divisive issues within the ICANN community for more than a decade. The reason why is due to the different interests rolled up within Whois, and how these interact with ICANN’s power dynamics.

WCIT goes dark: deadlock hits key telecoms conference

by Kieren McCarthy | 11 Dec 2012 |

Chair leads even smaller group of regional representatives in crunch talks

The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) is going dark with just one day left to rewrite the international telecommunication regulations (ITRs) and a number of significant issues remaining unresolved.

Despite 1,700 participants representing 189 different countries and organizations, large sections of the text will be decided by a group of 24 regional representatives this afternoon.

The decision to call the closed meeting, without many of the issues ever having been discussed in plenary sessions, has been a conscious strategy adopted by the chair and ITU throughout the meeting.

But while that approach has kept embarrassing public fights to a minimum, it also raises serious questions over the ITU's processes and ability to act a global convener and resolver of modern telecoms issues, particularly when it comes to the Internet.

The most troubling parts of leaked 'compromise text'

by .Nxt | 8 Dec 2012 |

A leaked draft of a so-called "compromise text" to be introduced on the first day of the second week of the WCIT conference contains a number of proposed changes that will have some governments and most Internet organizations fuming.

Here are the most troublesome parts:

Article 3.3

MOD 3.3: A Member State has the right to know the international route of its traffic where technically feasible.

This was already a controversial proposal, with civil society groups claiming that it would allow for widespread online monitoring.

The addition of the word "international" is this text makes it plain that the intent is to track traffic not just within a country's own borders but outside as well.

Article 3A - The Internet

Verisign loses dot-com piggybank

by Kieren McCarthy | 30 Nov 2012 |

US government intervenes, raising questions about ICANN stewardship

Verisign shares have plunged 15 percent, wiping $850 million off the company's value, on the news that it will not be allowed to raise prices on dot-com domains for the next six years.

The current wholesale price for dot-coms stands at $7.85 and the company had already agreed a six-year extension on its right to exclusively sell the domains with DNS overseeing organization ICANN. That agreement mirrored one signed in 2006 that allowed Verisign to raise the price by seven percent in four of the six years the contract ran.

However the contract was subject to approval by the US Department of Commerce and it decided to remove the price-rise clause before signing. A short statement issued by the DoC quoted Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling saying that "consumer will benefit from Verisign's removal of the automatic price increase".

ICANN bypasses second AoC report

Raising further questions about its accountability, ICANN's Board bypassed the second of four independent reviews and this month gave its new CEO carte blanche to try a new approach to the decade-long policy problem of Whois data. The Whois review team is reportedly furious that its has been dismissed with little or no public discussion and following a number of unexplained delays since the report was delivered late last year. The actions mirror those of the Board last year when it attempted to bypass a critical independent report in its accountability and transparency. Only fierce lobbying on the part of key community members and the US government caused that report's recommendations to be accepted and even though only after unexplained delays of over a year. ICANN is obliged to carry out four independent reviews into different aspects of its work under an agreement it has with the US government.

Why we are making all WCIT documents public

by .Nxt | 22 Nov 2012 |

Today, we are publishing all documents related to the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) that will take place in just over a week in Dubai.

We would like to explain why.

As interest has grown over the outcomes of this conference (thanks largely to concerns raised about what they may be) the issue of availability of related documents has itself become a major bone of contention.

These documents are widely available to those within the telecommunications industry, and they are available for download to all members of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Membership of the ITU is open to all and the organization relies on the resulting fees to carry out its important global work. It is a system that has worked for decades.

Times have changed however and we feel that there is an overwhelming public interest case for bypassing this agreed approach and making the WCIT documents available without charge.

Here is why.

World's largest trade union rejects ITU overtures

by Kieren McCarthy | 22 Nov 2012 |

Unswayed by a meeting with the ITU Secretary-General, ITUC head tell us: "We will continue to oppose these proposals"

Burrow: Trade union federation will 'stay the distance' in opposing WCIT proposals.

The world's largest trade union organization, the ITUC, has rejected efforts to explain concerns over the WCIT conference next month as "misunderstandings" and will continue to oppose its proposals, Secretary-General Sharan Burrow told us.

Warning that the implications for e-commerce and jobs were "extraordinary" and slamming the conference proposals for "having been kept secret until a month ago", Burrow has promised that the ITUC will lobby hard within the United Nations to prevent was she termed "mandate creep" on the part of the ITU.

How to follow events live at WCIT

by .Nxt | 22 Nov 2012 |

Conferences are very fluid and often go at a breakneck speed, especially when there are many hundreds of changes to be discussed and approved, modified or rejected.

Adding to that is the fact that it is a closed conference. You need to be a formal representative of an ITU Sector Member or be invited onto your government's delegation to be allowed into the room.

Documents are only available through a password-protected website and there will be no live-streaming or scribing of events.

So how on earth are you going to find out what is happening, let alone follow events as they happen?

We have the answer for you.

We hope to make it possible to follow events live in three ways:

  • Documentation - We will be updating our document pages as the conference progress. See Your Guide to WCIT documentation for full information. As we update proposals, the newest one will appear at the top of pages.
Syndicate content