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ICANN Forum Conversation
T. Lowenhaupt, Connecting.nyc
and P. D. Thrush, at ICANN
Paris, June 25, 2008

>>THOMAS LOWENHAUPT: Tom Lowenhaupt on
behalf of dot NYC and good governance
for city TLDs.

I've been an observer and occasional
participant in the Internet governance
process for a little over ten years now.
During that time, I've seen concepts
such as open and transparent,
stakeholder, and multistakeholder
flower here.

The role and responsibilities of civil
society are being shaped by the efforts
to establish a viable governance
structure for the Internet. Today
Internet governance innovations are
seeping into the U.N. via the IGF.

The organization for which I work,
Connecting.nyc Inc., is a New York State
not for profit corporation. As such, it
is bound by our U.S. and New York State
constitutions and by statutes enacted
by a legislature. These guidelines did
not imagine an Internet or a dot NYC TLD.

Much of my time these days is spent
in research and discussions seeking
an effective governance structure for
the dot NYC TLD. New York City is a baby
in terms of global cities, having been
formed a mere 400 years ago, our
governance structure will be shaped by
those years and the unique needs of
merging the Internet into our complex
society. And our governance structure
will be different from that of every
other city TLD.

The ICANN is a treasure of
governance experiences.  From the
decisions that shaped the initial
incorporation under the laws of the
state of California that elected Esther
Dyson as the first chair, to the
process that elected Karl Auerbach
and several others to the board of
directors, to this week's many meetings
which explored its future.

I'd like to request that a new section
be created on ICANN's Web site that
presents ICANN's governance experiences.
This would be of immense help to cities
such as New York, Berlin, Paris, as
they seek their counterparts to ALAC
and NCUC, the constituencies and
advisory boards that will guide those
TLDs' development.  And our pioneering
experiences should be catalogued for
the many cities that will soon
integrate that amazing tool, the
Internet, into their cultures in new and
exciting ways.

Cities are the grass roots, they're
the bottom-up, and will increasingly
play a role in Internet governance.
Please provide some resources to assist
our efforts.

Thank you all very much. And thank you
for sitting, all of you, throughout
this long meeting. [Applause]

>>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: Thomas, thank
you for thanking us. In addition
to what you said we've heard recently
that another multinational organization
has just started adopting ICANN type
governance structures. Your suggestion
that we put some of that experience
available as a resource on the Web
site is an excellent one, and I see
that the manager of public participation
has also heard that and that may be
something we can do for communities
­such as yours. So thank you for that.

Affirmation of Commitments

On September 30 , 2009 a new relationship between ICANN and the NTIA began with the following agreement:

AFFIRMATION OF COMMITMENTS BY THE UNITED STATES

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND THE INTERNET CORPORATION FOR

ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS

1. This document constitutes an Affirmation of Commitments (Affirmation) by the United States Department of Commerce ("DOC") and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN"), a not-for-profit corporation. In recognition of the conclusion of the Joint Project Agreement and to institutionalize and memorialize the technical coordination of the Internet's domain name and addressing system (DNS)¹, globally by a private sector led organization, the parties agree as follows: See details.

The Official Organization View(s) 

According to the ICANN's home page  on February 25, 2007:

"ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers [Domain Names]. These include domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .UK), as well as the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols. Computers use these identifiers to reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability."

How Others View ICANN

The ISOC-India-Chennai view:

ICANN Blog Post on the Governance Archive Initiative

During the Public Forum at the June 2008 ICANN Paris meeting Connecting.nyc Inc.'s founder conversed with ICANN's Chair, Peter Dengate Thrush, about creating an archive of the ICANN’s governance experiences - see sidebar.  Our goal was to have these resources available for Connecting.nyc Inc.’s continuing effort to create a viable governance structure for the .nyc TLD and for other cities that will be acquiring TLDs in the coming years.­

After some exchanges with ICANN staff,  Kieren McCarthy suggested a post on the ICANN blog might be a way to further scope the effort and move it forward. As I was preparing this background info for the post I  noticed a recent email by Wolfgang Kleinwachter discussing IGF processes and use of the terms Dynamic Coalition and Outcomes and realized that the utility of this archive could be far broader than cities.

Let move the conversation forward by suggesting several questions that need to be addressed.

• SCOPE - In light of Prof. Kleinwachter 's questions, perhaps we might speak of "ICANN Governance Processes" as inclusive of those of the ICANN and its supporting and advisory organization, and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and its related entities.
  
• WHO WHERE HOW - ICANN might appropriately fund the development of this resource as part of its commitment to the new TLDs program. While it has apparent advantage to cities, other "communities" might also find the archive helpful. As a start, a wiki might be an appropriate platform for consolidating thoughts and links.
  

Global Internet Governance Entities

• ­ U.S. NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Agency)
  
• U.S. Department of State - May 13, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Philip L. Verveer, for the rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, Department of State. Verveer is Of Counsel to the law firm of Jenner & Block LLP. He has practiced communications and antitrust law in the government and in private law practice for more than thirty-five years. More at http://benton.org/node/25287
• Internet Governance Forum (IGF) - Connecting.nyc Inc. participated in the December 2007 IGF Forum in Rio. 
• Internet Governance Caucus - The key civil society contributor to the IGF.
  
• United Nations -
  
• International Telecommunications Union
  

City TLDs 

The early thoughts of cities and the Internet's role in their operation is lost. It is believed there was a discussion in the "namedroppers" conversation of the 1980's, but the record of that conversation has been lost.

Resource Links

•  ICANN Multistakeholder Governance Repository (in development) 
  

Key .nyc Pages

• The .nyc wiki Home Page
• Operating Environment
• Domain Name Allocation Plan
• Development Environment
• Governance

• Comments on Governance Filed with NTIA

• ICANN
  
• Connecting.nyc Inc. Home Page­
•  The .nyc Blog