Recap of ICANN53 Discussions concerning the IANA Stewardship Transition and Enhancing ICANN Accountability Sessions
by Samantha Dickinson
A
fter three days of ICANN53 pre-meetings that involved detailed
discussions on the IANA Stewardship Transition and Enhancing ICANN
Accountability, the Sunday evening session, IANA Stewardship
Transition & Evolution of ICANN Accountability sought to contextualize the intensive work of the
CWG-Stewardship and CCWG-Accountability within a wider ICANN
evolutionary process that has lasted almost two decades. Veterans of the ICANN process, Lyman Chapin, Alejandro Pisanty and Nii Quaynor, outlined the community?s long history, reflecting on how ICANN can be improved and its commitment to strengthen multistakeholder mechanisms.
Larry Strickling, NTIA, set the tone for a frank and open discussion about the current work to enhance ICANN Accountability. He also noted that there could be up to a five-month gap between when NTIA received the consolidated IANA Stewardship Transition proposal and when implementation could begin. Participants also spoke of the need for mutual trust between ICANN Board members and the community. Strickling expressed admiration for the multistakeholder model, noting that its beauty lay in the fact that, unlike in traditional policy making processes, all the power could reside with stakeholders if they were willing to exercise that power. Quaynor held a similar view, noting that an ICANN community could not be fully empowered until its constituent parts had also been empowered.
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