[CWG-Stewardship] SLE update - ICANN seeks to delay SLE Accountability reporting......

[Andrew Sullivan]

On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 07:11:35PM +0100, Paul M Kane - CWG wrote:
> the IANA operator is either:
> a)  accountable to the NTIA via the SLA,
> or
> b) accountable to the naming community via the SLE.  

Obviously.  But changing the counterparty and changing the
measurements in question are two completely separate problems.  One is
contract-only, the other involves changes to how the data is gathered,
what the thresholds are, and even what data is gathered.  

> So delay in finalising the SLE just delays the date of transition from NTIA.

That doesn't follow, and Annex H doesn't say that.  There's nothing in
Annex H by my reading that requires that the actual data gathered and
the levels of service need to change at the same time the parties to
the agreement change, unless I am missing something.

>From a technical operations standpoint, this is the most stable way to
proceed:

1.  Get an agreement that the old SLE measurements and levels remain
in place but that the new counterparty is ICANN to PTI.

2.  Get an agreement that within n months (for some n) the new SLE
measurements and levels take effect.

[transition can happen after that]

3.  Run in parallel the new-SLE and old-SLE measurements under ICANN
stewardship.  Iterate until working.

4.  Switch over to new SLEs by month n.

As nearly as I can tell, that approach is completely consistent with
what's in Annex H and doesn't block the transition.  I was not arguing
that the new SLEs are not valuable or shouldn't be pursued.  I argued
before (and argue now) that the above approach is consistent with the
goal, maximises stability, and allows the transition.  Contrary to
what Milton seems to be implying, I'm not trying to undo any
consensus; frankly, this is what I thought people had agreed to since
the SLE text wasn't even close to ready in time to submit to the ICG.

If people are insistent on something else and IANA can't deliver on
the timetable we want (which seems to be the report), what is the
fallback plan?  For it seems to me that it'd be a needless crisis if
these SLEs can't be had as quickly as one would like.

Best regards,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com