Over 100 people attended yesterday's public hearing (view the archived webcast) as part of the ongoing NTIA notice of inquiry on the continued privatization of the DNS. Commerce Dept. official John Kneuer, the acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communication and Information, said the NOI had generated nearly 700 public comments, but did not mention that the vast majority of them were critical of the unilateral oversight exercised by the USG and ICANN's continued problems with lack of transparency, accountability and representation. Contrary to certain inaccurate reports, no major changes or revelations occurred at this meeting; the Commerce Department attempted to solicit the views of certain stakeholders and revealed little about its own views. How NTIA will use the comments remains to be seen, but one experienced former government official said that "NTIA how has all the excuses it needs to change essentially nothing."   more »

The IGP submitted comments today in response to the NTIA inquiry on transition of the DNS. The essence of IGP's comments can be summarized as follows: The transition of DNS administration envisioned by the White Paper has gotten stuck somewhere in the middle of the process. This halfway house is an unstable and undesirable place. We urge the U.S. Commerce Department to complete the transition of DNS to a nongovernmental, multi-stakeholder regime and to clarify and limit the role of national governments, including the U.S. government. To pave the way for the transition, we ask the U.S. to ameliorate and internationalize its oversight in ways that will strengthen the accountability of ICANN to the global Internet community. We ask that two new principles related to accountability be explicitly recognized as part of ICANN's charter. One pertains to the basic human right of freedom of expression; the other would be a general principle of accountability.