ICANN may invite experts proposal on transparency

In compliance with the Affirmation of Commitments (AoC) signed with the United States Department of Commence (DoC), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) may invite experts’ proposal on transparency and accountability to conduct a review since the latest agreement on September 30, 2009.

Assistant, Organizational Reviews at ICANN, Ms Alice Jansen, made this disclosure, last weekend, saying that this would be in expression of commitment to improve robust mechanisms for public input, accountability and transparency.

“So as to ensure that the outcomes of its decision-making reflect the public interest and are accountable to all stakeholders,” she said.

Jansen noted that the AoC prescribes the setting-up of a Review Team as to evaluate ICANN’s accountability and transparency, which led to the creation of the first ATRT in March 2010.

This step, she said, would enable the appointment of an independent expert, adding that it was respect of this examination of ICANN’s activities, that the first ATRT recently published some “Questions to the Community for Public Comment.”

According to her, the purpose of this assignment is to perform an assessment of ICANN decision-making to identify whether ICANN’s processes and procedures are designed and executed in a manner that ensures its AoC commitments.

Ms Jansen pointed out that interested parties are invited to provide relevant background material, written methodology for execution of this task, views on the tentative timeline enclosed in the RfP, a proposed budget, resumes, references and financial information by June 11, 2010.

She further revealed that based on review of the June 11, 2010 submissions, parties may be invited to present their proposals to perform this study to the ATRT during its meeting on June 18-19, 2010 in Brussels, Belgium.

ITRealms Online recalls that the purpose is that an assessment of the decision-making at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to identify whether ICANN’s processes and procedures are designed and executed in a manner that ensures accountability and transparency and reflects the interests of global Internet users.

The AoC, she said, recognizes the conclusion of the Joint Project Agreement between ICANN and the Department of Commerce and institutionalizes and memorializes the technical coordination of the Internet’s domain name and addressing system (DNS), globally by a private sector led organization.

A key element of the Affirmation, she said, is the establishment of four ongoing reviews of ICANN’s execution of core tasks through “review teams” pointing out that the first review team, the Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT) is examining ICANN’s activities to ensure they are accountable, transparent, and undertaken consistent with the public interest.

The review team will make recommendations, as needed, to the ICANN Board for improvements by December 31, 2010.

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