Laurence Strickling, US Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and the NTIA's (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) Administrator has sent a letter to ICANN Chairman Steve Crocker on the new gTLD program.
The letter is dated January 3, 2012. Nine days before the scheduled launch of the program on January 12.
I am very impressed by the letter.
The US government clearly gets the unique multistakeholder governance model that ICANN embodies. The letter is a statement of staunch support for that model, right down to the constructive criticism of the new gTLD program it puts forward.
"The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recognizes that this program is the product of a six-year international multistakeholder process and we do not seek to interfere with the decisions and compromises reached during that process," it says, in what is a clear message that the US government is not asking ICANN to delay the January 12 start date.
However, the NTIA suggests that ICANN must remain vigilant over the need that users might feel to apply for defensive registrations. "We think, and I am sure ICANN and its stakeholders would agree, that it would not be healthy for the expansion program if a large number of companies file defensive top-level applications when they have no interest in operating a registry," the letter reads. Spot on.
It also requests prompt implementation of existing law enforcement and consumer protection commitments that ICANN has made. A lot of work on this is already ongoing, in particular on the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) where registrars and ICANN have been in direct negotiations since October's Dakar meeting. The NTIA is telling ICANN how important it is not to drop the ball on this.
The letter then goes on to make the only point that I would take exception with: that not enough outreach has been done to inform people of the program, especially in the US! This is an argument that has often been levied by opponents of new gTLD in their lobbying attempts at stalling the program (and this NTIA letter is also the result of some of that lobbying). But the truth is that there has been substantial action by both ICANN itself, and businesses that have a vested interest in the program like registrars and registries, to get the information out. Some of us have been talking to our national press since the program was first ratified in 2008!
The importance of a functional and protected WHOIS system is also stressed. This too is already the subject of ICANN community work, including work being done by the Generic Names Supporting Organisation (GNSO), ICANN's policy making body for gTLDs.
The NTIA letter is clearly timed to show support for ICANN and the new gTLDs at a time when they both need it badly. A spate of recent calls against the program (that read like digs at ICANN itself) have had some wonder whether the January 12 date would stick. Steve Crocker recently publicly said it would. And ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom has told me privately that ICANN is ready, and that he has had no calls from the US government to delay.
This letter proves it. ICANN would do well to read it carefully and take the advice it gives seriously.
