[AT-Review] Rod's remarks on Accountability & Transparency

[Brian Cute]

RT,

 

Excerpt from Rod Beckstrom's Opening Ceremony speech in Brussels:

 

Transparent and Accountable 

Much has been made in the media of ICANN's consideration of the application
for a .XXX top-level domain, which the board will address this week. This
follows a non-binding decision by an independent review panel that the board
should reconsider its earlier decision.

Although this issue predates my arrival at ICANN, I have been struck by the
transparent way ICANN is dealing with this controversial issue.

Most people learned about the independent panel's decision when ICANN
publicized it and subsequently requested public comment. Throughout the
process we have sought opinions from all sides.

The Community Accountability and Transparency Review team constituted under
the authority of the Affirmation of Commitments has already met near ICANN's
offices in Los Angeles. It has been meeting again here in Brussels, and
ICANN staff is contributing to this effort.

ICANN's staff, board and community have built an impressive record of
accountability and transparency, and are building on these achievements.

In 2007 an independent 68-page report on ICANN by the One World Trust
concluded that "overall, ICANN is a very transparent organisation. It shares
a large quantity of information through its website, probably more than any
other global organisation."

It would have been easy to sit back and say "good enough" after praise like
that. But we didn't.

We constantly renew our commitment to openness, and we act on it - every
day, every month, every year. Even the pursuit of that commitment is done in
utter transparency: we have an open, public assessment of further areas
where we could improve.

For example, we are creating a comprehensive and searchable online database
of all ICANN board resolutions going back to ICANN's founding in 1998. Doing
this in a wiki allows transparent reporting on which resolutions were
implemented and if the expectations of the community were met.

We recognize the right of the Review Team to publicize their views. But we
also recognize the sizeable challenge they face - as a group that includes
interested industry stakeholders and contracted parties - in attempting to
produce an objective and independent report that the board and community
will find useful. We look forward to publication of their framework and the
objective basis for their work so the community will have an opportunity to
review it.

The quest for greater transparency and accountability is an ongoing process.
The challenge for ICANN is that no matter how good we are, we will never be
"good enough". We are certain the Review Team will find areas where they
believe further improvement can be made.

 

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