[IPC-GNSO] Fwd: [CWG-Stewardship] NTIA Blog Update

[Greg Shatan]

This was sent to the CWG-Stewardship regarding the IANA Contract.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Grace Abuhamad* <grace.abuhamad at icann.org>
Date: Monday, August 17, 2015
Subject: [CWG-Stewardship] NTIA Blog Update
To: "cwg-stewardship at icann.org" <cwg-stewardship at icann.org>


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
[image: Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA
Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling]

The Internet’s 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 Internet’s 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 NTIA’s 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_proposal-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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