[council] ICANN Makes Presentation to Midterm Review Public Meeting

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http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-28feb08.htm
ICANN Makes Presentation to Midterm Review Public Meeting

Now is the time to start planning transition
28 February 2008

WASHINGTON, DC: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers 
made its presentation on the Midterm Review of the Joint Project 
Agreement (JPA) between itself and the United States Department of 
Commerce at a public meeting held today in Washington, DC.
"I think that after almost 10 years of experience of this model the 
question before us is very stark: Are we going to complete the White 
Paper’s vision of private sector management of the Internet’s system of 
unique identifiers? I believe the overwhelming view from virtually all 
participants is that transition is the goal and the interest is in 
settling how we get there," ICANN Chair Peter Dengate Thrush said.
Today’s public meeting was held to discuss the written submissions that 
the National Telecommunications and Information Administration had 
received during its recently concluded public comment period on the JPA 
between the U.S. Department of Commerce and ICANN. The JPA was signed in 
September 2006, is due to conclude in September 2009 and was scheduled 
for a Midterm Review at this point.
In his presentation the Chairman said he would ask the President’s 
Strategy Committee to outline a plan for developing this transition 
framework. They will meet in April and make a first presentation 
involving the community, starting a process for further engagement with 
the community at the ICANN meeting in Paris in June. The process will be 
guided by the input ICANN has received so far from its own 
consultations, and the analysis of the comments surveyed in this Review.
"The U.S. government has been and remains a staunch advocate for an 
Internet that is based on values of freedom, enterprise and crucially 
coordination — not control. Now, there are final steps to be taken to 
make this a reality and to celebrate an enlightened U.S. policy under 
two administrations to transition to private sector management of the 
domain name system.
"We all now need to work together over the 18 months remaining in the 
JPA to finalize the model for the long term," Dengate Thrush said.
The complete statement to the public meeting is available on the ICANN 
website at 
http://www.icann.org/jpa/presentation-to-jpa-midterm-review-public-meeting-28feb08.pdf 
[PDF, 201K].
--
Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat - ICANN
gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org
http://gnso.icann.org