By Nick Patience
As the next public meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, set for the end of May approaches, groups are slowly forming themselves to fit into one of the seven constituencies ICANN outlined as part of its domain name supporting organization (DNSO). The DNSO will be one of three supporting organizations that will each nominate three board members to ICANN’s eventually 19-strong board. The current nine- member board is an interim measure that will last until some time next year.
ICANN named seven constituencies it wants to see form under the aegis of the DNSO: country-code registries; commercial and business entities; generic domain registries; ISPs; non- commercial domain holders; registrars; and trademark intellectual property and anti-counterfeiting interests. ICANN wants these constituencies to self-form before the series of meetings in Berlin on May 25-27. Each constituency will nominate three members of the names council – the steering committee of the DNSO – and that will be the body that picks the ICANN board members. Under ICANN’s bylaws, there is no limitation on the number of constituencies in which an entity can participate, but no more than one employee of each entity will be permitted to serve on the names council at any one time. ICANN says individual domain name holders should be able to fit into one of the constituencies, but says that it may recognize self-forming groups that don’t fit under one of these seven prescribed umbrellas in the future.
ICANN is advising all the groups to hold meetings on the morning of May 25 in Berlin and says there will be a DNSO general assembly meeting in the afternoon. There will be a full ICANN open meeting on May 26 and a closed ICANN board meeting the following day.
Various efforts are underway, either in open or in secret, and many players we have contacted are not willing to divulge their plans just yet. The Internet Society (ISOC) is trying to act as the focal point for the non-commercial domain holders and to this end posted a request on its web site at the end of last week calling for other non-profits to join it. ISOC, the IEEE Computer Society, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the Spanish internet users association and the Policy Oversight Committee (POC) signed the letter. The last of these is a body very close to ISOC that was established in 1997 to oversee a collection of would-be domain name registrars, called the Council of Registrars (CORE).
The ISP group will probably be formed from the various trade associations around the world, such as the Commercial Internet eXchange, EuroISPA, ISP/C, and the Latin American/Caribbean ISP, which have been loosely coordinating their efforts for several months, according to EuroISPA officials.
A group based around – but not exclusively derived from – the Open Root Server Confederation is working to form a generic domain registry constituency outside the confines of ICANN involving a separate collective root, but there is seemingly no consolidated effort so far to form one within ICANN’s conditions. The country-code registries have been invited to meet in Berlin on May 25 by the Council of European National Top-level domain registries (CENTR).
Jon Englund, senior VP of the software division of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) appears to be heading the effort to get the commercial and business entity constituency off the ground. The trademark, intellectual property and anti-counterfeiting interests appear to be typically well- organized, judging by the number of bodies already supporting the International Trademark Association (INTA). It has already held one meeting and has another two scheduled for this week and the first week in May. Another group of trademark and anti- counterfeiting interests outside INTA has started a mailing list to discuss the creation of this constituency and news is expected from that group very soon.
The final constituency, the registrar group, may take a while longer to get going and possible participants are even more reluctant to talk than the other groups, it seems. Right now, Network Solutions Inc is the exclusive registry and registrar for generic top-level domain names (gTLDs). ICANN is due to announce the five companies it has chosen to participate in the two month competitive test period on April 21 in Washington DC. The test phase is due to commence April 26. Rich Forman, president of Register.com, one of the companies applying to be among the chosen five says forming such a constituency is not a strategic priority right now as the company does not know if it will be chosen yet. Most observers believe the five will be mostly fairly large communications companies from all parts of the world. Forman says he is aware of some movement among other registrars, but there’s no much occurring right now, he says. NSI could probably fit into all but the non-commercial interests’ constituency, but has so far remained mute on its plans. However, it will certainly figure in a number of the groups. It has not got back to us yet.
