To prepare for discussion next week with ICANN management. These are just my opinions, although I sometimes use the "NCUC favors..." language in the hopes that we will agree. I also addressed only those issues that interest me the most, others need to throw in comments on the issues that interest them. Marc, since you will be at the Amsterdam meeting I am particularly interested in your input. --MM ========================= COMMENTS ON ICANN STRATEGIC PLAN The Strategic Plan should include greater recognition of the importance of the transition from USG supervision. The Strategic Plan needs to look beyond the immediate issue of satisfying the US Department of Commerce MoU and present a compelling vision of a new governance model that is willing to accept the need for a new form of external accountability and which is confident enough to continue evolving and improving. As a private yet global organization, with regulatory and "taxing" powers over the domain name supply industry and indirect powers over the users of domain names, some supervision and accountability mechanisms will be required. NCUC strongly supports a transition which would internationalize this responsibility beyond the United States Department of Commerce. At the same time, we recognize the dangers of overly intrusive and arbitrary forms of governmental (or intergovernmental) intervention in the management of Internet identifiers. Recently, the issue of ICANN's supervision and accountability has been reframed by the emergence of the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). Because the WSIS and WGIG processes are largely outside of the direct control of ICANN and the USG, we do not expect a detailed discussion of those topics in the Strategic Plan. However, we would like to see some indication of openness on ICANN's part to new global institutional arrangements designed to foster accountability and supervision arrangements that minimize the potential for abuse and provide a safety valve for correcting procedural and substantive problems. In general, NCUC favors the direct participation of civil society fostered by the ICANN model over the intergovernmental model as the primary form of accountability. At the same time, civil society groups within ICANN believe that the current advisory status of the At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), and the imbalance between commercial and non-commercial constituency groups in the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), prevent ICANN from properly reflecting the interests of the non-commercial and individual users of the Internet, unfairly advantaging specific interest groups. We do not believe that the "reforms" introduced two years ago resolved these problems. Seemingly petty but consequential forms of bias, such as granting the GNSO Business constituency two representatives on the Nominating Committee when other constituencies only get to select one, are symptomatic of the kind of bias that often permeate ICANN's processes. Rather than implying that reform is complete and satisfactory to all parties, the strategic plan should recognize that problems still exist and need to be addressed. Competition and choice should definitely be a priority for ICANN. On new TLDs, we recommend replacing the term "predictable strategy for selecting new TLDs" with "predictable process for responding to demand for new gTLDs." Seven years after ICANN's creation, it should have more than a "strategy" regarding new gTLDs, it should have a well-defined, objective, and transparent process for adding them. Those proposing new TLDs should know how many are available each year and what they must do to qualify for one. They should also be assured of a fair, quick response to their proposals, rather than long, indeterminate, and untransparent private negotiations.