Rumors are flying that Rod Beckstrom, former director of the US Homeland Security Department’s National Cybersecurity Center, is the new CEO of ICANN. This is still unconfirmed by ICANN but comes from well-informed sources. We also hear that David Eisner, the CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service under G.W. Bush and former VP at AOL, was also in the running. Perhaps someone familiar with DC is a prudent choice, given ICANN's recent performance there. Beckstrom is best known for his dramatic resignation from his post earlier this year to protest the "takeover" of cybersecurity policy by the National Security Agency, an act of principle. Beckstrom has his own .com domain and is based in California. The link to cybersecurity issues could be a strength or a weakness, depending on the way the U.S. government handles its still-controversial supervisory role. Stay tuned.

[Editors note: One factor which distinguishes the Internet Governance Project from the din of voices in the Internet governance policy world is the vigorous theoretically informed debate that occurs within our Scientific Committee. The fact is, we don't always agree as IGP forms consensus opinion, represented by our submitted comments. Below is one committee member's take on the JPA and its relationship to ICANN.]

The future of the JPA has been subject to a lot of debate. Some people argue that the JPA should end in September, others think it should be extended once again. It is striking that the disagreement on the future of the JPA cuts across stakeholders and nationalities. This also true for civil society groups who have come down on both sides of the issue. They associate the JPA with the unilateral control over critical Internet resources, which they would like to see terminated rather now than any time in the future. Yet they understand the JPA also as "the shadow of hierarchy" looming over ICANN and thereby keeping it in check.   more »

The IGP has filed comments in the Department of Commerce proceeding on the “Assessment of the Transition of the Technical Coordination and Management of the Internet’s Domain Name and Addressing System” (Docket No. 090420688-9689-01). An excerpt from the summary is below:

"The global challenges we face demand global institutions that work." - President Barack Obama, 2008

ICANN lacks accountability and its processes are full of problems, but the JPA is not the right tool to use to fix them. The JPA contributes to ICANN's failings. ...it does nothing but invite the stakeholders in one privileged country to complain to their own government about policy outcomes they don't like. The U.S. government needs to let the JPA expire, and immediately initiate an international agreement that formalizes and completes the transition of ICANN to a stable form of multi-stakeholder global governance rooted in a nonprofit corporation.

   more »

One of the better side stories of yesterday's Congressional hearing on ICANN concerned Congressman Dingell's 5-minute intervention (see ~1:49:00 into the video) during witness questioning. In addition to raising the expected inquires into the expiration of the JPA, he also asked the witnesses their opinions concerning the 2006 ICANN-VeriSign negotiation of the .com contract.

When the witnesses were asked if the contract "suffered from a lack of transparency," he got the expected answers. ICANN's CEO Paul Twomey, pointing out the contract was publicly available, said "no." Ken Silva of VeriSign agreed. Go Daddy, VeriSign's largest customer, argued to the contrary. Yes, Christine Jones said, the contract was publicly available, but it was the secrecy-shrouded process that led up to it that was cause for concern, and that Go Daddy didn't agree with the outcome.

Apparently this concern is justified. Today, a 9th Circuit Appeals Court ruling indirectly supported Go Daddy's suspicions in its reversal of an earlier decision made in Plaintiff Coalition for ICANN Transparency (“CFIT”) vs. VeriSign.   more »

On Jun 1, timed for the NTIA proceeding and Thursday's hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, ICANN released a report of the President's Strategy Commission (PSC), "Improving Institutional Confidence: The Way Forward," that discusses some of the new accountability measures PSC has been considering, and makes some specific proposals. Three of note:

1. A new mechanism for the community to require the Board to re-examine a Board decision (see Appendix B). As proposed this mechanism would have a high hurdle: it would be invoked by a two-thirds majority vote of two-thirds of the Supporting Organization Councils and two-thirds of members of all the Advisory Committees. For the Governmental Advisory Committee, a consensus statement from all the members present at a physical meeting shall suffice for the purpose of this vote.

2. Rejection of the "nuclear option" of unseating the entire Board (Recommendation 2.9)

3. A slightly strengthened Independent Review Tribunal (see Appendix C). The standards for review of decisions would be improved, but ICANN makes an argument that according to California nonprofit public benefit law, the decision of the review panel cannot be binding on the Board.

IGP will comment in more detail on these proposals when it submits comments to the Commerce Department NOI.