[atlarge-discuss] Breaking News ~ MoU signed

["Satyajit Gupta" <icheckemail@indiatimes.com>]

 Hullo all!

 I guess all of you know about the recent ICANN - DoC MoU, signed by the 20th September 2002.

 Regards,

 Satyajit.

"Denise Michel" wrote:





On 
September 20 the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) published its new Memorandum 
of Understanding (MOU) with ICANN.  The MOU, which is a one year extension 
of the DOC/ICANN agreement, imposes some new tasks on ICANN regarding improved 
accountability, transparency, and overall security of the Domain Name System, 
but fails to require specific action on At-Large.  The MOU requires ICANN 
to 

"9. Continue 
to develop, to test, and to implement appropriate mechanisms that foster 
informed participation in ICANN by the global Internet 
community."
In the 
accompanying statement, DOC expanded on the issue of individual Internet user 
participation:

  

"Responding to Internet stakeholders. It is the Department's view 
  that ICANN's processes should be designed to ensure that all Internet 
  stakeholders have the opportunity to get a fair hearing. Given the great 
  diversity among Internet stakeholders, it is critical that ICANN develop 
  mechanisms that allow for the opinions of all stakeholders to be heard and 
  meaningfully considered. 
  

To address this concern, Amendment 5 to the MOU sets out a new task (ICANN 
  Task 9) whereby ICANN will continue to develop, test, and implement mechanisms 
  to increase informed participation by the global Internet community in 
  decision-making. This new task acknowledges the ERC's proposal to create a 
  manager of public participation who would be responsible for developing 
  mechanisms to encourage full public participation in ICANN and to facilitate 
  the receipt and analysis of all public comments received on a given proposed 
  action by the ICANN Board. It also recognizes the Board's charge to the ERC to 
  explore the development of an At-Large Advisory Committee as a vehicle for 
  soliciting informed participation by the broader user community.(20) 
  The Department looks forward to ICANN's quarterly status reports detailing how 
  ICANN addresses this task. 
  

In addition, the Department is very much aware of the concerns expressed by 
  individual Internet stakeholders that ICANN is not always responsive to 
  inquiries regarding DNS management issues. Although not specifically 
  referenced in the MOU, the Department hopes that ICANN will develop processes 
  and set aside appropriate resources to ensure it promptly responds to 
  constituent inquiries. The Department hopes ICANN will include in its 
  quarterly status reports details on how the organization implements processes 
  and mechanisms to ensure responsiveness to such inquiries." 
Here are the links for these documents:
Memorandum of Understanding between 
Commerce and ICANN
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/agreements/amend5_092002.htm

Dept. of Commerce Statement on the MOU
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/agreements/docstatement_09192002.htm


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