ICANN Board to Vote on Reform

The board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will vote Friday on a controversial proposal to overhaul the nonprofit organization, which was tasked by the U.S. government in 1998 to oversee the Internet's domain name system.

The proposal, posted on ICANN's Web site last week, outlines a streamlined consensus-building process designed to speed up ICANN's decision making and policy setting. The proposal also addresses ICANN's inability to adequately fund its operations.

ICANN's board of directors will vote on the reform proposal during a weeklong meeting held in Bucharest, Romania. The proposal, created by a select committee of board members, represents several months of debate within the ICANN community about how best to restructure an organization that is overburdened by process and failing to fulfill its responsibilities.

Making Changes

Among the significant changes outlined in the proposal are:

• Replacing at-large elections for some ICANN board members with selections by a nominating committee that represents various constituencies. (The majority of ICANN board members will continue to be appointed by ICANN's supporting organizations for generic top-level domains, country code top-level domains, and IP addressing.)
  
  
• Reducing the number of ICANN board members from 18 to 15.
  
  
• Strengthening the advisory role of ICANN's government participants.
  
  
• Creating an Office of Ombudsman.
  
  
• Limiting ICANN's reconsideration process for board and staff decisions.
  
  
• Requiring ICANN-accredited registrars and registries to pay ICANN a per-name fee, estimated at 25 cents per domain name.
  
  

"The board wants to approve a blueprint on reform tomorrow," ICANN President Stuart Lynn said at a press conference from Bucharest Thursday. "They may or may not approve the blueprint from the committee. They might make some changes. But they want to approve something... and move forward."

Up for Renewal

Lynn said it's critical for ICANN's board to approve a reform agenda prior to September, when ICANN's contract with the U.S. Commerce Department is up for renewal.

Also scheduled for a board vote Friday is a proposal to create a 30-day waiting period before domain names that are not renewed by their owners can be re-sold. Currently, that waiting period is five days, and many companies and nonprofit organizations have seen domain names that they inadvertently let expire get purchased and redirected to pornographic or gambling Web sites.

ICANN's 18-member board is led by Vint Cerf, one of the founders of the Internet and a senior vice president of Internet Architecture and Technology for WorldCom. Other pioneering network engineers on the ICANN board include: Karl Auerbach, a founder of Precept Software, which was later sold to Cisco Systems; and Lyman Chapman, chief scientist at NextHop Technologies, who previously held the same post at BBN Technologies.

ICANN's board meeting will be Webcast on its site.