The Commerce Department on Friday announced it has signed a Joint Project Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to continue the transition of the coordination of the technical functions relating to the management of the Internet Domain Name and Addressing System to the private sector. It focuses on institutionalizing transparency and accountability mechanisms in the management of the Internet domain name and addressing system. The three year Joint Project Agreement extends the current Memorandum of Understanding between the Department and ICANN which expires on September 30, 2006. It calls for a midpoint review of ICANN’s progress towards becoming a more stable organization with greater transparency and accountability in its procedures and decision making, the department said. The Joint Project Agreement follows an internal review of the MOU and a public consultation process that resulted in over 700 contributions from individuals, private corporations, trade associations, non-governmental entities and foreign governments.
This and more on the issue from the Benton Foundation. Also EU welcomes autonomy plan for Net governance from Reuters (via ZDNet), U.S. loosens control over Net oversight body from C|Net. Track news about ICANN from previous posts at WNM.
