[council] Cheers to the Multistakeholder Community

[Bruce Tonkin <Bruce.Tonkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From:  https://www.icann.org/news/blog/cheers-to-the-multistakeholder-community

Blog post from Steve Crocker, Chair of ICANN Board

Cheers to the Multistakeholder Community

Two and a half years ago, the ICANN multistakeholder Community embarked on a 
journey to develop a globally agreed on plan to transition the U.S. Department 
of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration's 
(NTIA) stewardship of the IANA functions to the global Internet Community. The 
process signaled the historic final step in transitioning the coordination and 
management of the Internet's unique identifiers to the private-sector that 
began with the formation of ICANN in 1998.

The process to develop the package of transition proposals embodied the spirit 
of the Internet itself - global, diverse and inclusive. People from different 
economic sectors, cultures, interests and backgrounds worked together to 
develop two consensus proposals that ensure the continued stable and secure 
operation of the IANA services and an enhanced accountability for ICANN. One of 
the proposals focused on ICANN's transparency and accountability. The other 
focused on arrangements with the three operational communities, the Regional 
Internet Registries for numbers, the Internet Engineering Task Force for 
protocol parameters, and the top-level domain registries for names.

The proposal development process reflected the Community's dedication and 
commitment to achieving this historic final step. The community spent hundreds 
of hours in calls and meetings and exchanged tens of thousands of emails 
exploring and discussing complex governance issues, debating different views, 
and eventually finding consensus. This process tested and strengthened the 
trust in and across the ICANN community, and is a good demonstration of global 
multistakeholder policy development working. The resulting package of proposals 
has broad support because it reflects the Community's work, and preserves the 
existing multistakeholder system while laying the foundation for a more 
accountable and equitable balance within the ICANN ecosystem.

Today, after months of preparation and implementation of the community's tasks, 
ICANN's contract with NTIA expired. As a result, the coordination and 
management of the Internet's unique identifiers is now privatized and in the 
hands of the volunteer-based multistakeholder community.

The transition will help to ensure the continuation of a single, open Internet 
that users around the world can rely on for years to come. I am honored to be 
ICANN's Chairman of the Board during this historic process.

The operational mechanisms and enhanced accountability frameworks outlined in 
the proposals are enshrined in ICANN's new Bylaws, which are now in effect. The 
ICANN Community, Board and organization will now move forward together as a 
more accountable and transparent body. These changes, while vitally important 
for the relationships and management of ICANN, will have no visible effect on 
the operation of the Internet. The very large ecosystem of Internet System 
Providers, content providers and users will continue to function without change.

Thank you all again for your work throughout this process. I look forward to 
our ongoing collaboration on further accountability and transparency 
enhancements in Work Stream 2 of the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing 
ICANN Accountability, and everything else yet to come.