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Regular surfers of Internet may not see the difference. But there’s something significant that has happened. The Internet is finding its feet to a new reality. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for managing the Internet, has just come out of US reins.
The crucial meeting of ICANN57, the first after US giving up its supervisory role, has begun here – with stakeholders representing governments, Internet enabling companies, individuals and non-governmental organisations, all taking part.
Ram Mohan, a member on the ICANN Board, asserts that the corporation doesn’t run the Internet. “We are only enabling it. We are coordinating various issues that make the Internet run,” he told BusinessLine on the sidelines of ICANN here on Thursday.
“We are not a regulator of the Internet. We are aiming at ensuring efficiency, equity and choice,” he said.
He said the ICANN had brought in a new set of by-laws to govern the Internet. “We are in the process of understanding what these changes are. Now, there is this Empowered Community Model. There is a new mechanism to ensure accountability. If a Board Member is found to be not working properly, the community can initiate a petition for the removal of the member,” he said.
What’s going to be the biggest change after the US giving up its supervisory role? The ICANN will now be accountable to the global community unlike in the past when the nod of the US would do for some decisions.
Ram Mohan agrees. “We are now accountable to the world, to the global community. The challenge before the ICANN is that it must ensure level playing field for all the players. A small organisation must be able to compete with a larger player. We will be judged on how we fared on this count going forward,” he said.
“We have to demonstrate that we are effective and efficient as we guide the development of Internet infrastructure,” he pointed out.
The week-long conference will discuss in detail issues related to human rights, domain names, privacy, security, governance and the changed by-laws.
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