[CCWG-ACCT] Judgement-free DNS

[Alan Greenberg]

In the the current Bylaws, Core Value 1 is

"Preserving and enhancing the operational stability, reliability, 
security, and global interoperability of the Internet."

Driven at least partly by the NTIA requirement that the transition 
ensure "The neutral and judgment free administration of the technical 
DNS and IANA functions", the proposed new language was

"Preserve and enhance the neutral and judgment free operation of the 
DNS, and the operational stability, reliability, security, global 
interoperability, resilience, and openness of the DNS and the Internet."

The ALAC's comment considered the phrase "Preserve and enhance the 
neutral and judgment free OPERATION of the DNS...". The DNS is the 
overall system that includes the functions managed by IANA/ICANN the 
root servers as well as every other DNS instance in the world. To 
claim that ICANN has ANY control over the operation of the entire DNS 
is both over-reaching and implies a level of control that we do not have.

The current proposal (now Commitment 2), "Preserve and enhance the 
neutral and judgment free administration of the technical DNS, and 
the operational stability, reliability, security, global 
interoperability, resilience, and openness of the DNS and the 
Internet" was an attempt to used the wording of the NTIA requirement 
in lieu of "...operation...".

Presumably the reference to IANA, although crucial to the NTIA 
intent, was omitted because under the new proposed regime, this is 
not strictly an "ICANN" function. I was not part of the decision on 
exactly what language to put in the present version.

People have now reasonably queries what the "technical DNS" is.

I propose the following language which removed the word "technical" 
but addresses the original ALAC concern.

"Preserve and enhance its neutral and judgment free administration of 
the DNS, and the operational stability, reliability, security, global 
interoperability, resilience, and openness of the DNS and the Internet"

By replacing "the" with "its", we are limiting ICANN's responsibility 
to the aspects of the DNS that it actually has control over, and the 
questionable word "technical" is removed.

Alan