[governance] DMP} Statement on Process and Objectives for the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance

[David Conrad]

McTim,

On Nov 30, 2013, at 6:29 AM, McTim <dogwallah at gmail.com> wrote:
> I was referring to those ICANN processes that are still immune from GAC/Board/Staff interference. Namely the ASO, but perhaps the ccNSO, but I can't testify to that area.

Neither the ASO nor the the ccNSO are 'immune" from "interference".

In the case of the ASO, the ICANN Board of Trustees has a duty to abide by ICANN's Bylaws. Item 1.b. of the ICANN Bylaws states that ICANN 'coordinates the allocation and assignment of ... Internet Protocol ("IP") addresses and autonomous system ("AS") numbers ...".  Far from being immune, in the past, the ICANN Board has investigated particulars of policies the ASO has put forward in order to understand the rationale/implications (I know this from personal experience: while I was manager of IANA, I was tasked to provide input to help the board understand a global addressing policy proposal). While, to date, ICANN's Board has seen fit to approve every policy put forth by the ASO, it can be argued that this is the case because the few policies the ASO has put forward have abided by the overarching mission ICANN has been chartered to undertake.  

As for the ccNSO, it has not (to my knowledge but will admit I'm a bit dazed by antihistamines due to a cold) put forth any policy proposal, however the board has (at least in the past) reviewed each and every redelegation request to ensure it meets the requirements specified in ICP-1/RFC 1591 and has, in fact, refused to move redelegations forward, requiring IANA staff to provide further rational/justification (in the cases I'm familiar with, requiring additional information with regards to "local Internet community support" for the redelegation). 

In both cases, the ICANN board has (at least to my knowledge) taken advantage of _advice_ provided to it by the GAC and _input_ it has requested from staff to make its decisions.  As far as I am aware, neither of those inputs are definitive -- the board makes its decisions and (now) documents its rationale for those decisions based on its own processes.  In the case of decisions that have direct/immediate impact on the operations of the Internet, there is are additional processes and other validation steps that are imposed (specifically in the case of changes to the root zone, NTIA authorizes changes and Verisign provides technical checks, many of which duplicate what IANA staff perform prior to the delegation request even hitting the board).

My understanding (which may be wrong) of the reason for the board being involved in these sorts of policy decisions is to ensure there is broader input than just the singular community of interest requesting the change.  That is, if you assume that changes to the Internet's system of unique identifiers has impact beyond a single community, it is important that those changes be understood from more than simply a single community's viewpoint. This would be true both of the addressing aspect of the Internet's system of unique identifiers as well as the ccTLDs.

Regards,
-drc

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