<div dir="ltr">Dear All,<div><br></div><div>It was an interesting reading of the article by Mr Steve Crocker.</div><div>The challenge is to keep the Internet free and open from the dynamically changing </div><div>socio-economic and political changes taking place in the world.</div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div>Dr Govind</div><div>Chair Cooperation SIG in APNIC</div><div>and President ISOC Delhi Chapter</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 11:04 AM, Rinalia Abdul Rahim <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rinalia.abdulrahim@gmail.com" target="_blank">rinalia.abdulrahim@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Dear APRALO,<br><div><br></div><div>Chairman of the ICANN Board Steve Crocker's op-ed in the Wall Street Journal below regarding the IANA Stewardship Transition.</div><div><br></div><div>Happy reading!</div><div><br></div><div>Best regards,</div><div><br></div><div>Rinalia</div><div><br></div><div>(<a href="http://tinyurl.com/zu634s4" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-weight:bold" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/zu634s4</a><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14px"><b>).</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14px"><b><br></b></span></font></div><div><div dir="auto"><br><blockquote type="cite"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:14px;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><hr size="3" width="100%" align="left"></span></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt"> </p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:14px;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><img src="cid:407CDAC2-AD10-4741-8C07-20C6162B41DC" type="image/png"></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="Calibri,sans-serif" style="font-size:14px"> </font><font face="Times"><b style="font-size:24px">OPINION</b></font></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:14px;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:14px"><b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:Times">Broadening the Oversight of a Free and Open Internet <u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size:14px"><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Times">Stewardship
by the global community will guard against ‘capture’ by one group or
government.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16px"><b style="font-family:Times"><font>By Stephen D. Crocker, </font></b><b style="font-family:Times"><font>April 19, 2016 6:31
p.m. ET</font></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">Today
the global Internet connects three billion of us. While it has grown, the world
has shrunk. Geographic distance has become less relevant as we can more easily
access information, communicate and reach new customers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">The
Internet has matured because it is free and open, led by the private economy
and based on voluntary standards. It is built on the principles that define
America: free enterprise and limited government.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times">It
is those same ideals of privatization that frame a </span><a href="https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/iana-stewardship-transition-package-10mar16-en.pdf" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">proposal</span></a><span style="font-family:Times"> recently sent to the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration that would transition
stewardship of some key Internet technical functions away from the U.S. to a
diverse and accountable global Internet community.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">Why
is such a transition needed? Since the Internet’s inception, the U.S. Commerce
Department and the California nonprofit corporation that I head, the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, have been in charge of coordinating
the global assignment of Internet addresses and domain names. In 2014 the U.S.
government decided a more international stewardship was appropriate. Since
then, the global Internet community has been working on a proposal that assures
that such a transition will not threaten the openness and freedom of the
Internet.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">First
and foremost, this proposal guards against “capture” by any one group or
government. This is the primary reason the Internet community—along with
businesses, civil society and other interest groups—has given its blessing to
the changes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times">On
March 17, representatives from the </span><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/INTC" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">Intel</span></a><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/INTC" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue"> </span></a><span style="font-family:Times">Corporation, the Internet Society and others
told Congress they supported the transition. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the
U.S. Council for International Business, the Information Technology Industry
Council, the Software & Information Industry Association and others also
approve of the plan.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Times">Business
leaders from companies like Google, </span><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/VZ" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">Verizon</span></a><span style="font-family:Times">,</span><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/VZ" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue"> </span></a><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/T" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">AT&T</span></a><span style="font-family:Times">,</span><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/T" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue"> </span></a><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CSCO" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">Cisco</span></a><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CSCO" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue"> </span></a><span style="font-family:Times">and </span><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/YHOO" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">Yahoo</span></a><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/YHOO" style="font-family:Times" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue"> </span></a><span style="font-family:Times">participated in the development of the proposal.
Academics from Harvard, George Mason University and other institutions also
weighed in. From the International Chamber of Commerce to the Center for
Democracy and Technology, diverse organizations have voiced support.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">These
groups understand the vital role of the Internet in strengthening the global
economy by creating jobs and economic growth. Almost $8 trillion of commerce
takes place on the Internet annually, an example of how dependent the world
economy has become on a single, unified network.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">But
there are no guarantees about the Internet’s future. In fact, the transition proposal
came from the understanding that maintaining the status quo would risk the
single, free and open Internet that we cherish.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">If
the U.S. does not transition its stewardship role to the global Internet
community, then other governments may try to move control to organizations like
the United Nations. There is also a risk that some governments may form their
own national or regional networks. This disruptive splintering would damage the
economy and weaken personal Internet use.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">This
potential threat to the Internet was understood as far back as 1997, when the
U.S. formalized its largely symbolic role as steward of some of the Internet’s
technical functions. It intended to move away from this role once Icann was
mature enough to operate without the U.S. as a backstop.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">In
March 2014, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration
announced that it wanted to begin the process of severing its contract with
Icann. The government stipulated that Icann remain an incorporated U.S.
nonprofit entity and would need to be strongly accountable to diverse
stakeholders with an interest in the Internet.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">Over
the past two years, myriad interests and participants in the global Internet
community worked tirelessly to meet that challenge. Hundreds of stakeholders
undertook an amazing effort that logged more than 400 meetings and calls, some
32,000 mailing list exchanges and hundreds of working hours to devise a
transition proposal. A plan describing how the transition always envisioned
could be implemented has now been delivered to the Commerce Department.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">The
proposal reinforces the private economy-led model that has allowed policy to
keep pace with the Internet’s growth. What could be more American than a world
that has a free and open Internet, in which all stakeholders have a voice in
its governance and no one interest has a controlling say?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">A
successful stewardship transition will allow online innovation and productivity
to continue to thrive. What’s more, it will be a validation of the approaches
to other pressing transnational issues such as privacy, online content,
interconnection fees, taxation and cybersecurity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">This
transition, maintaining the global Internet’s role as an incubator for
innovation and a stimulator of domestic and international economic growth,
merits broad support. We owe it to future generations to assure that the
Internet of tomorrow is as free, open and resilient as the Internet of today.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:16px">Mr.
Crocker is the chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u><font size="3"> </font><u></u></p>
</div>
</blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><img src="cid:407CDAC2-AD10-4741-8C07-20C6162B41DC"></div></blockquote></div><br></div>
<br>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>
APAC-Discuss mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:APAC-Discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org">APAC-Discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org</a><br>
<a href="https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/apac-discuss" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/apac-discuss</a><br>
<br>
Homepage for the region: <a href="http://www.apralo.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.apralo.org</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div>