[CWG-Stewardship] NTIA Blog Update

[Grace Abuhamad]

Hi all, 

This is relevant to the IANA Stewardship Transition, and the CWG-Stewardship
work by extension. Here is the original link:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2015/update-iana-transition. The text of the
blog is copied below for your convenience.

An Update on the IANA Transition
August 17, 2015 by Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information
and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling
The Internet¹s global multistakeholder community has made tremendous
progress in its work to develop a proposal to transition the historic
stewardship role NTIA has played related to Internet¹s domain name system
(DNS).
When we announced 
<http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2014/ntia-announces-intent-transition
-key-internet-domain-name-functions>  our intent in March 2014 to complete
the privatization of the DNS, we noted that the base period of our contract
with ICANN to perform technical functions related to the DNS, known as the
IANA functions, expired on September 30, 2015. However, it has become
increasingly apparent over the last few months that the community needs time
to complete its work, have the plan reviewed by the U.S. Government and then
implement it if it is approved.
Accordingly, in May we asked the groups developing the transition documents
how long it would take to finish and implement their proposals.  After
factoring in time for public comment, U.S. Government evaluation and
implementation of the proposals, the community estimated it could take until
at least September 2016 to complete this process. In response to their
feedback, we informed Congress on Friday that we plan to extend our IANA
contract with ICANN for one year to September 30, 2016. Beyond 2016, we have
options to extend the contract for up to three additional years if needed.
This one-year extension will provide the community with the time it needs to
finish its work. The groups are already far along in planning the IANA
transition and are currently taking comments on their IANA transition
proposals. As we indicated in a recent Federal Register notice
<http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/fr_iana_transition_comment_
notice_08102015.pdf> , we encourage all interested stakeholders to engage
and weigh in on the proposals.
In preparation for the implementation phase of the IANA stewardship
transition, NTIA also asked Verisign and ICANN to submit a proposal
detailing how best to remove NTIA¹s administrative role associated with root
zone management, which the groups working on the transition were not asked
to address. We asked Verisign and ICANN to submit a proposal detailing how
best to do this in a manner that maintains the security, stability and
resiliency of the DNS. Under the current root zone management system,
Verisign edits and distributes the root zone file after it has received
authorization to do so from NTIA. Verisign and ICANN have developed a
proposal 
<http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/root_zone_administrator_pro
posal-relatedtoiana_functionsste-final.pdf>  that outlines a technical plan
and testing regime for phasing out the largely clerical role NTIA currently
plays in this process. The testing will occur in a parallel environment that
will not disrupt the current operation of the root zone management system.
These developments will help ensure that the IANA transition will be done in
a manner that preserves the security and stability of the DNS.


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