<div dir="ltr"><div>Congrats on being included in the Multi-stakeholder Innovation panel. This is a great initiative by ICANN, we will strive to give feedback as the community.<br><br></div>Regards<br></div><div class="gmail_extra">
<br clear="all"><div>______________________<br>Mwendwa Kivuva<br><a href="http://twitter.com/lordmwesh" target="_blank">twitter.com/lordmwesh</a><br><div>google ID | Skype ID: lordmwesh</div></div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 18 October 2013 20:39, Bitange Ndemo <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bitange@jambo.co.ke" target="_blank">bitange@jambo.co.ke</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Envisioning a 21st Century Organization to Coordinate the Internet<br>
Addressing System: A Shared, Global Public Resource<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Last week the seven, international members of the ICANN Strategy Panel on<br>
Multistakeholder Innovation convened online. The panel includes:<br>
Chair: Beth Simone Noveck Panelists: Allison Gilwald, Joi Ito, Karim<br>
Lakhani, Guo Liang, Geoff Mulgan, Bitange Ndemo GovLab Support Team:<br>
Stefaan Verhulst, Jillian Raines, Antony Declercq<br>
<br>
<br>
The Multistakeholder Innovation Panel is an external advisory group formed<br>
to bring fresh insights and outside perspective to ICANN’s ongoing process<br>
of planning its own evolution.<br>
<br>
It has been almost 15 years since the creation of ICANN in 1998. At that<br>
time, ICANN was perceived as an experiment in translating the principles<br>
of participatory democracy – or what is known in Internet governance<br>
parlance as “multi-stakeholderism” – into practice. Since then the<br>
Internet’s usage has exploded and the process of managing the unique<br>
identifier system that enables communications to flow seamlessly across a<br>
unified, global Internet is facing numerous challenges. At the same time,<br>
innovations in governance from big and open data, open innovation, open<br>
contracting, open peer review, crowdsourcing to expert discovery allowing<br>
for more participatory, open, and transparent processes of governance have<br>
emerged.<br>
<br>
The Innovation Panel supported by the GovLab is working to make<br>
recommendations to the ICANN Community for how to evolve the ways ICANN<br>
manages and coordinates the domain name space. Starting with the<br>
principles of multi-stakeholder governance – including transparency,<br>
accountability, accessibility and inclusiveness – the goal of the panel is<br>
to address new ways to realize this vision more effectively. “The aim of<br>
the panel isn’t to tackle global issues of Internet governance but to<br>
articulate what a 21st century ICANN, whose functions are quite narrow,<br>
could look like and how it could operate given the innovations in<br>
governance happening across the world,” added Panel Chair Prof. Beth<br>
Simone Noveck.<br>
<br>
During the call, members discussed how to capture the principles,<br>
platforms, practices and strategies for opening up ICANN and how to make<br>
its processes more effective and more legitimate at each stage of a<br>
policymaking process from issue-identification to agenda setting to<br>
solution-development and implementation to evaluation and review.<br>
<br>
Members agreed that the seven of them alone do not possess all the wisdom,<br>
know-how and insights necessary but, rather, their highest and best role<br>
is in stewarding a broader conversation around the question: what might it<br>
mean to manage and coordinate a shared, global public resource in the 21st<br>
century?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
To that end, the Panel wants input as it starts to map:<br>
•<br>
The technologies and platforms that exist for identifying know-how and<br>
enabling participatory decision-making across stakeholders.<br>
<br>
•<br>
The best models for leveraging collective intelligence, open innovation<br>
and open data around the world – that could be applied to the ICANN<br>
processes;<br>
<br>
•<br>
The variables that are important to consider when designing innovative<br>
ways to manage and coordinate – using new technologies.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
To help frame the discussion, members also discussed three current topics<br>
on which ICANN is working. The goal being to help frame how to experiment<br>
around participatory decision-making on these issues:<br>
<br>
•<br>
Next-Generation Registry Directory Services/“Thick” Whois:<br>
<br>
◦<br>
The NextGen Registry Directory Services is a proposed successor for<br>
today’s Whois database (a publicly searchable repository of data on domain<br>
name registrations). This proposed new system would collect, validate and<br>
disclose generic top-level domain (gTLD) registration data for<br>
permissible purposes only, with some data elements accessible only to<br>
authenticated requestors.<br>
<br>
•<br>
Name Collisions:<br>
<br>
◦<br>
During implementation of ICANN’s decision to open up and allow for new<br>
generic top-level domains (gTLDs), the likelihood that name space<br>
collisions between existing gTLD strings, applied for new gTLD strings,<br>
and non-delegated TLDs became apparent. Specifically, local top level<br>
domains used internally by private enterprises may potentially conflict<br>
with names yet to be allocated.<br>
<br>
•<br>
Internationalized Domain Name Variants:<br>
◦<br>
Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) use character sets such as Chinese,<br>
Arabic, Cyrillic or other non-Latin characters. An IDN variant TLD can be<br>
defined as one that may look like or be considered exchangeable with<br>
another TLD by a user of the related writing system. For example, a string<br>
in traditional Chinese characters commonly has an equivalent string in<br>
simplified Chinese characters. The issues that need to be resolved around<br>
supporting IDN variants in the root zone include how to avoid “visual<br>
confusion” and how to construct a “lookup table” in the root so that all<br>
variant queries are properly directed.<br>
<br>
We’ll soon be launching an online platform to gather input and ideas and<br>
reach out widely to the global audience focused on innovations in<br>
governance. In the meantime, I am requesting you to give us your input on<br>
what type of multistakeholder arrangements you want to see ICANN adopt.<br>
<br>
<br>
Ndemo.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
University of Nairobi<br>
Business School, Lower Kabete Campus<br>
<br>
<br>
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